Man confesses to pair of Cloverdale robberies

Jacob Higdon

CLOVERDALE -- A 22-year-old Cloverdale man has confessed to a pair of recent armed robberies at a local gas station, police say.

In a Friday morning interview with Putnam County Sheriff's Department detectives, Jacob Higdon allegedly told police he was the perpetrator of armed robberies at the Marathon station at the corner of U.S. 231 and Market Street on March 30 and April 28.

Det. Sgt. Pat McFadden told the Banner Graphic that details began to surface following the first robbery and investigators developed a suspect. However, details were too scant to pursue the investigation further.

Then on April 28, the station was robbed again in almost an identical fashion, including how it was robbed and what was taken.

Based on these further details, a search warrant was served at a Cloverdale residence Friday morning, with assistance from PCSD deputies, Cloverdale Police and Indiana State Police.

After executing the warrant, a pair of interviews took place, including with Higdon.

After confessing during the interview, he was booked into the jail at 12:23 p.m., preliminarily charged with two counts of armed robbery and probation violation.

The probation violation springs from Higdon's January conviction to two Class C felony burglary counts.

In that March 2014 incident, Higdon broke into Cloverdale Liquors and Dollar General, stealing bottles of vodka, energy drinks and snack cakes.

After Higdon spent 273 days in jail awaiting the workings of the legal system, Putnam Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges sentenced him to time served plus probation for the rest of the four-year sentence. Two Class D felony counts of theft were dropped.

Official charges in the latest case are pending review by the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office.