Repeat Tacoma robber who once asked to go to jail is back behind bars
Before he robbed a Lakewood convenience store on Aug. 29, 2014, Maurice Barb told police he wanted to go to jail.
After allegedly robbing a Tacoma convenience store Monday, the Tacoma man had nothing to say to police, spokeswoman Loretta Cool said.
Barb, 47, was arraigned Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court on a charge of second-degree attempted robbery. Court Commissioner Meagan Foley set his bail at $500,000.
According to court documents and Cool:
Barb went to a gas station and convenience store at 1440 Puyallup Ave. about 12:30 a.m. Monday and parked his car in different spots in the lot, which prompted the cashier to call 911.
By the time police arrived, Barb was gone. He came back about 5 a.m., walked up to the register and asked for a piece of paper.
“Give me all the money in the cash register,” he wrote.
The cashier asked if Barb was serious. He was, and told her to open the till.
She said she couldn’t without doing a transaction. He told her to do a transaction, and glared at her as he kept his hands in his sweatshirt pocket.
The cashier was able to call 911, and Barb walked slowly toward the door as police arrived to arrest him.
Before Barb was arrested in 2014, he had first refused to pay a taxi fare and told police he wanted to go to jail because he had nowhere else to go.
When police refused to take him to jail, he waited awhile before robbing a convenience store by covering his arm with a jacket and pretending to hold a gun.
He took took money from the cash register and left. Later that day, he turned himself in and was arrested.
Barb was booked on a robbery charge — which would have been his third strike — but he later pleaded guilty to first-degree theft, which is not a three-strikes offense.
Barb has two prior robbery convictions in Washington and California and faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the most recent charge, according to court documents.
Kenny Ocker: 253-597-8627, @KennyOcker
This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Repeat Tacoma robber who once asked to go to jail is back behind bars."