Alleged serial robber faces new charges

Walter Kevin Johnson, 28, of 6124 Braidwood Court, faces two dozen charges in connection with the crimes, which happened between Sept. 22 and Oct. 8 in Raleigh, Cary, Holly Springs and Wake Forest.

He was jailed Tuesday at the Wake County Detention Center under a $3.925 million bond.

On Wednesday, he received three additional charges of assault on a female, assault by pointing a gun and obtaining property by false pretense.

Police say Johnson attacked a young woman in the driveway of a north Raleigh home on Wynneford Way on Sept. 27.

The woman, who was dog-sitting, told investigators that a man came up behind her, wrapped his arm around her neck, put a gun to her head and tried to force her to drive to an ATM. When she refused, he pushed her to the ground and kicked her, police said.

The young woman's family declined to comment Wednesday.

Earlier this month, police say, Johnson sold stolen jewelry to Bardy's Estate Jewelry & Diamonds and received about $2,000. Investigators haven't commented on a possible motive for the crimes but said they are continuing to investigate.

"(We're) making sure that any other stones – not just stones but pebbles, at this point – are overturned as well," Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said Tuesday. "We're looking to follow up on any great or small lead to see if there could be any accomplices, to determine what the motive is and the list just goes on. The investigation is not over simply because an arrest has been made."

Police arrested Johnson on Friday afternoon after his wife called 911 and said she suspected him of the crimes.

"There's evidence all over the house," the woman said in the call. "I just can't find the damn gun."

"I'm kind of terrified, because I have a newborn in the house," she added. "He's been acting really weird, and I don't know if he even has a job anymore."

The caller in the 911 recording was not revealed during the call, and Raleigh police would neither identify the caller nor confirm if it was Johnson's wife.

A call-for-service record requested by WRAL News, however, shows the 911 call was made from Johnson's home, and his attorney, Matt Faucette, said Johnson lived with his wife and their 6-week-old son.

In talking about his client Monday, Faucette said that Johnson ran a Web design firm and had not been paid for his services. In an interview with WRAL News on Saturday, Johnson's wife said the family was having financial problems.

Police say several of the crimes happened near Johnson's home, including one less than 2 miles away on Pleasant Valley Road on Sept. 22.

In that case, investigators say, a man armed with a handgun assaulted another man and stole a woman's purse as they walked from their car.

Less than 24 hours later, a woman parking her car at an apartment complex off Duraleigh Road – about 3 miles from Johnson's home – was forced into her car and told to drive to an ATM to withdraw cash. She was dropped off, and her car was later found abandoned near her home.

In one of the latest cases, a Cary woman said she awoke in the middle of the night to an armed man in her bedroom who made her write down her family's banking information and then told her that he would hurt her children if she did not drop off $45,000 for him the following day.