A Vancouver man who used a military uniform and story about a fake wedding engagement to steal a diamond worth $100,000 from a Bellevue jewelry store was sentenced last month to three years in prison.
A King County Superior Court judge sentenced Ar’quae D. Kennedy on Dec. 28 to 33 months on charges of first-degree theft and second-degree promoting prostitution.
Once released, Kennedy is barred from returning to Diamond Inc. on Main Street in Bellevue, where he snatched the diamond from an employee and ran to a getaway car.
The Bellevue Police Department sent its investigators to Vancouver in April to arrest Kennedy.
Police said at that time that on the night of Feb. 22, a man dressed in camouflage military fatigues entered Diamond Inc. and asked to see 3- to 5-carat diamond stones. According to a probable cause affidavit, Kennedy was wearing a camouflage military-style hat, jacket and pants, as well as military-style boots.
A witness also told police the suspect had a tattoo of a horse on his neck, according to the affidavit.
An employee at the store brought out two rings for Kennedy to inspect, but Kennedy “requested to see a bigger diamond,” the affidavit says. Kennedy said he faced an upcoming deployment and had just become engaged, prompting his search for wedding rings. An employee presented a 5.54-carat marquise diamond, a generally larger stone cut in the shape of an eye, police said.
He grabbed the stone from the salesperson’s hand and ran from the store. The store manager and his son chased after Kennedy, who got into a vehicle that was being driven by an accomplice, identified in court documents as a woman with highlighted hair.
The chase took Kennedy and his pursuers along several streets and a private driveway, according to the affidavit.
The store manager — having grabbed onto Kennedy’s fake military uniform as he entered the getaway vehicle — was dragged down the street for a short distance before being punched in the face. The manager suffered a bloody nose, cut lip, and scrapes on his knuckles, knees and legs, according to the affidavit.
Police first found footage of the getaway car and tried to track down the then-unknown suspect that way. But it turned out the vehicle had been rented to someone who did not match the description of the suspect, court records say.
An officer lifted palm and fingerprints from the store’s main door. A search of an FBI database returned a hit for Kennedy, who court records show has a criminal history that includes convictions for residential burglary and possession of a stolen firearm.
Additionally, two of three of the store employees identified Kennedy in a photo lineup, according to the affidavit.
Court documents say the stolen diamond was not recovered.
