PANAMA CITY BEACH — Police arrested a local man and Washington woman they believe works as an escort on suspicion of robbing two people at knifepoint after she lured them to a motel room.
Jennifer Rochelle, 30, of Vancouver, Wash., and Dustin Wade Martin, 28, of Springfield, were arrested Tuesday. Martin was at the Summer Breeze Motel with property police said he stole from one the two victims. Rochelle was arrested on her way to the Greyhound station, and she had property that police said belonged to a victim as well.
According to police:
Rochelle lured two men into a room at the Chateau Motel on Front Beach Road early Monday morning. Not long after the two men arrived Martin came into the room.
Martin and Rochelle forced one of the men onto a bed, held a knife to his throat and took a laptop computer and other valuables, including a tattoo gun Rochelle had when she was arrested. After taking his property, they threw him out of the room and sent him off to find drugs that he could give them for the return of his tattoo gun.
They punched and kicked the other man’s head before trapping him in the bathroom for approximately 10 hours. They took his cellphone and some jewelry and told him they’d kill him if he came out.
Rochelle made incriminating statements after her arrest, police said.
Martin and Rochelle were booked into the Bay County Jail Tuesday on suspicion of two counts of armed robbery and a count of false imprisonment. On Wednesday, Judge Shane Vann set Rochelle’s bond at $125,000 total and Martin’s bond at $250,000 total. It was not clear if they had attorneys.