3 men arrested in robbery during church service
by Dale Neal
updated April 14, 2008 1:44 pm
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Bakersville – BAKERSVILLE — Three men arrested for robbing members of a Bakersville church Sunday of more than $1,600 face at least 14 charges each, with more pending from the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office.
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The men armed with a pair of pistols entered the Ridgeview Presbyterian Church near Bakersville shortly after services began at 11 a.m. They demanded members’ billfolds, purses, cell phones and car keys and also stole money from an offering plate, said Chief Deputy Donald Street.
Street said the suspects bound two men from the congregation with duct tape and threatened to kill anyone who followed them. A gun went off accidentally when one of the men bent down, but no one was injured, Street said. The men then fled in a white Chevrolet Blazer.
Members called 911 on a cell phone left behind in the church. Deputies stopped the car around 11:50 a.m. near Boyd’s Family Seafood on N.C. 226 near Bakersville.
“The 16 people at the church that morning when I arrived on scene was very shaky and nervous, they were scared, clearly,” said Street.
Arrested were brothers Andrew Ryan Deyton, 20, and Josiah Jacob Deyton, 18, of Green Mountain, and
Jonathan Neal Koniak, 20, 0f Blountsville, Tenn. They were being held in the Rutherford County Jail with bond set at $150,000 each.
The men face 12 counts of armed robbery for each victim, an additional armed robbery count for stealing from the church and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
Street said it was unclear why the trio targeted this particular church. They are not suspected in any other crimes in the county, though Street said they might have been arrested elsewhere before.
They bought duct tape used in the crime earlier Sunday morning at a store in Spruce Pine, Street said.
“In our county, we’ve never had such a crime as that before,” said Street
