By JENN McDOWELL
Two Manchester residents are being charged with robbing a Subway sandwich shop in Allenstown after a collaboration of police efforts in Allenstown, Hudson, and Nashua revealed that robbery was unrelated to a recent string of Subway robberies in the southern part of the state.
Phillip Rawnsley, 30, and Michelle Despres, 22, both of 390 South Main St. in Manchester, allegedly held up the Allenstown shop on Thursday, Dec. 27, at around 9:40 p.m. The two employees on duty at the time were forced to empty the cash register of $180, according to Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.
The next day, Mulholland met with Nashua and Hudson police to determine whether the Allenstown robbery was connected to two Nashua Subway robberies, one that occurred later the same evening and another on Monday, Dec. 24, and a fourth Subway hit in Hudson shortly before the Allenstown robbery on Thursday.
Surveillance tapes from the Allenstown shop did not match the tapes and descriptions of the suspects in the three other robberies, Mulholland said. “At least the people that went inside the building were two separate people,” he said.
Despres and Rawnsley were being held at the Valley Street jail in Manchester for a recent city convenience store robbery when Mulholland said it was found that female foot impressions at the Allenstown Subway matched those of the convenience store robbery evidence.
Police interviewed Despres on Sunday, Dec. 30, at the Manchester Police Department and confronted her with the evidence match. It was determined Rawnsley was also involved in the Subway hit.
Rawnsley was also being held on felony possession of a firearm in an unrelated state police case, Mulholland said.
While the two have not yet been officially arrested, grand jury indictments will be filed and both Despres and Rawnsley will likely be arraigned the week of Monday, Jan. 7, he added. Rawnsley will be charged with armed robbery and Despres with accomplice to armed robbery.
Neither Rawnsley or Despres had prior knowledge of the three other Subway hits in Hudson and Nashua, Mulholland said.
“It was just a matter of convenience. They drove by, and it looked like a convenient place to hit,” he said, adding both suspects have lengthy prior sheets.
Three other suspects have been charged in connection with the robberies in Nashua and Hudson.