Pair charged in Saturday's robbery in St. Petersburg

First they were shot at by the man police say they tried to rob, and now they've been charged.

Cory Jay Smith, 21, and Benjamin Roland Jones, 19, entered John's Variety Store at 208 Fourth St. N Saturday night with masks on and brandishing a pellet gun that resembled a semiautomatic, police said. The would-be robbers demanded cash. That's when store owner John Silva ducked under the counter and grabbed a .380-caliber handgun he calls Betsy.

The men fled as Silva squeezed off three rounds. Smith was stopped soon after on Central Avenue; Jones was found hiding in Mirror Lake, where he got a minor bite from a police dog.

Police do not believe Smith and Jones, both from St. Petersburg, are the men responsible for two convenience store robberies last week in which clerks, both brothers, were shot despite cooperating. Smith and Jones don't match the descriptions of the robbers in those cases and used a different weapon, police said.

Neither man has a prior robbery arrest, though Jones was on probation for auto theft. They were charged with armed robbery.

Will Van Sant, Times staff writer