A Nov. 14 preliminary hearing has been set for a suspected armed robber accused of kidnapping two women in La Jolla and forcing them both to withdraw $500 each from bank ATMs.
The incident took place Sunday, May 4, when two women in their 20s were walking toward their parked car in front of the La Jolla Women’s Club, 7791 Draper St. A man asked one woman if she knew where the Mirage bar was, and she said no.
The man then exposed a gun in his waistband and told both women to “give me everything you have,” according to an arrest warrant declaration. One woman could only produce $6.
He forced both women into the car at gunpoint, threatening to shoot them, and ordered one woman to drive to separate ATMs to make the withdrawals. A crime laboratory reportedly matched a DNA sample belonging to Keith Russell Luckett, 24, of Moreno Valley.
Luckett, who was arrested Sept. 18 by San Diego police, remains in jail on $1 million bail. He is charged with two counts of kidnapping for robbery and two counts of kidnapping during a carjacking. If convicted, he faces two life terms in prison. He also had been charged in an unrelated case with making threats to his father-in-law.
One woman lives in New York and the other in Orange County. They attended a friend’s wedding in La Jolla hours before the robbery.