Suspect In Peachtree Corners Hotel Robbery Arrested

PEACHTREE CORNERS, GA — A man police say robbed a local hotel after claiming to be homeless and doing some work there has been arrested.

Joshua Evontay Hall, 29, was booked into Gwinnett County Jail on Saturday.

According to Gwinnett County Police, an officer was doing an area check in the parking lot of 3200 Holcomb Bridge Rd. in unincorporated Norcross at about 3 a.m. when he saw a white van in the parking lot with two people inside and another standing outside.

All of the retail stores in the complex were closed.

After approaching and asking for identification, the officer learned that the man standing outside was Hall.

The woman inside the van, Karen Ann Lupton, also had an outstanding warrant and was placed under arrest.

Police had identified Hall as the suspect in a robbery at the Comfort Inn and Suites at 5200 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard on Saturday, July 16.

Officers were called to the hotel at about 10:30 p.m. and spoke to a manager who said he'd hired the man to do some work at the hotel earlier in the day.

The man said he was homeless, from Ohio and had been arrested before for burglary, the manager told police.

The manager gave him $20 and a pizza for doing the work.

That evening, police say, the man came back inside the hotel lobby and asked a clerk to let him use the telephone to call the manager.

During their conversation, the man demanded more money and the manager refused.

After the clerk got her phone back, police say, she retreated to a back room at the hotel.

Surveillance video shows the man then jumping onto the counter, opening a cash drawer and stealing several hundred dollars from inside. He walks out of the lobby, passing several hotel guests on his way out.

Photos courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department