DNA from boxing match links man to 2009 robbery

Martin Tucker, white shorts, from Toledo fights Devaris Crayton at the Huntington Center.

DETROIT — A blow to the face during a boxing match landed Martin Tucker in jail.

Mr. Tucker, 32, was linked to a 2009 Monroe County credit union robbery after an FBI agent collected a thrown-away cotton swab used to clean up blood from Mr. Tucker’s face.

A complaint filed on July 16 in U.S. District Court in Detroit charges Mr. Tucker with bank robbery and using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Monroe County Community Credit Union, 7408 Lewis Ave., Temperance, was robbed at gunpoint on July 16, 2009, at 9:33 a.m., by two men, the complaint states.

One of the suspects pushed a customer inside the credit union and said to one of the tellers, “Hurry up. Give me all the money in the drawer.”

The men, with $5,379, fled from the credit union and got into a car parked outside with a third man waiting behind the wheel.

A witness who saw the robbery followed the getaway car for about 3 miles and saw the suspects abandon the car in a driveway in Toledo, the complaint states.

The suspects then ran into a wooded area near the house.

Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies found the car and a trail of items that authorities eventually determined were used in the robbery.

Recovered were latex gloves, a T-shirt, black mask, and industrial gloves.

From the recovered items, authorities recovered DNA allegedly belonging to Quentin Sherer, 32.

Sherer was arrested and indicted in November, 2011; his case is pending.

Using the recovered items, police also found DNA belonging to another person who was not already in a national database. Further investigation, including the use of Sherer’s MySpace.com profile, led officials to Mr. Tucker.

On April 28, an FBI agent from the Detroit office came to Toledo where Mr. Tucker was scheduled to participate in a boxing match at the Huntington Center.

Once the FBI agent had the cotton swab, lab processing linked Mr. Tucker to the robbery.

The complaint states that Mr. Tucker’s DNA matched a swab taken from the steering wheel of the getaway car, which was also stolen from a Toledo residence.

The complaint alleges that surveillance from the credit union shows that the suspect with a gun matches Mr. Tucker’s appearance.

Mr. Tucker is to appear in court on July 31.