Man pleads guilty to armed robbery of coffee business

Former Fallbrook resident Jason Matthew Taylor, 39, has pled guilty to the armed robbery of the Java Time coffee business in the 1200 block of South Mission Road that took place Feb. 1, 2010.

“A 24-year-old female employee was alone at the time of the robbery and the loss consisted of cash from the register and a bank deposit bag,” said Sheriff’s Detective Jeff Lauhon.

Lauhon, who handled the investigation into the crime, said the employee described the robber as a white male and evidence was collected at the crime scene.

“The evidence included a cigarette butt and an attentive employee at the nearby Pizza Hut had observed a white male smoking a cigarette and acting suspiciously in the parking lot that day,” explained Lauhon. “The pizza business employee also observed the suspect toss the cigarette butt on the ground before approaching Java Time’s customer window and committing the crime.” Lauhon said the cigarette butt was sent to the Sheriff’s Crime Lab for DNA analysis.

“On Sept. 23, 2010, the crime lab matched the DNA profile from the cigarette butt to [Jason] Taylor and notified me,” said Lauhon.

“Taylor was already in prison, serving a five year sentence for a residential burglary in the Sleeping Indian/Olive Hill area and an unrelated fraud case involving Fallbrook residents which were investigated by Detective Tom Vrabel,” explained Lauhon.

As part of his investigation into the residential burglary case, Vrabel had obtained a DNA oral swab from Taylor.

Lauhon then composed a photo line-up which included Taylor to see if the coffee business employee could make a positive identification.

“Even though nearly eight months had lapsed, the [victim] clerk was able to identify Taylor as the suspect who robbed the business,” said Lauhon.

An arrest warrant was issued for Taylor by the District Attorney’s office and Taylor was returned to San Diego County on January 12 of this year.

Taylor waived his rights to a preliminary hearing on February 22 and pled guilty to the crime.

“He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11 to approximately eight years in prison,” said Lauhon. “It is unknown at this time if the sentence will run concurrently or consecutively to the five year term he is already serving but he must serve 85 percent of the total sentence.”

The armed robbery and residential burglary convictions will give Taylor two strikes under California’s Three Strikes Law, Lauhon said.

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