It was Sunday, late evening (Aug. 3). Pamela Berdebes, 67, was at home on Bradmore Lane in Palm Coast. There was a knock at the door. Berdebes heard a man’s voice: “Pam, it is Marquis, let me in.” Berdebes recognized the name, which was connected to an ex-roommate of hers, Carisa Hall: Marquis had been Hall’s boyfriend.
Berdebes opened the door slightly to see who it was.
As soon as she did so, the man shoved the door open, causing it to hit Berdebes on the head. She fell to the floor. The man then told her not to look at him or she’d be killed, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s report. Berdebes could see the man’s shoes: black with a white stripe.
The man then proceeded to rob the house. But he did so while on a cell phone, speaking to someone. He seemed to know where to go in the house, or at least was getting directions on where to go. He told Berdebes that whoever he was speaking to “said you have pills,” a reference to prescription drugs that are the target of many thieves. The suspect didn’t hide the fact that the person he was talking to on the phone was a woman. He then took Berdebes’s purse, some money, and fled the scene. Berdebes called the cops, but the man could not be located that night.
Not long after the robbery–at precisely 10:09 p.m.; Berdebes was robbed at around 9:30 p.m.–one of Berdebes’s credit cards was used at a gas station on Granada Boulevard in Ormond Beach: $58.13 for gas. That gave detectives a chance to study the store video coinciding with that time. Detectives saw a Ford Freestyle being fueled, with an unidentifiable person at the pump. But the car was recognizable: it was Carisa Hall’s, Berdebes’s former roommate. Berdebes told cops that Hall drives her mother’s dark-blue SUV, which has a missing front bumper. A database search brought up the dark blue 2006 Ford Freestyle and its tag number.
Twenty minutes latter, the credit card was used again at an ATM outside Wells Fargo on West International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach. Detectives reviewed that video surveillance footage, which revealed a black man wearing a red shirt, purple bracelet on the right arm and a black hoodie style sweatshirt. The whole time the man was trying to withdraw money–he wanted $500, plus the $3 transaction fee–he was on a cell phone. The ATM declined the transaction: improper PIN.
By the time the card was used a third time, 15 minutes later, at a Kangaroo station on Beville Road in South Daytona, the man walks into the store and unwittingly reveals himself in full to surveillance video, clearly enough that detectives could identify the man as Daniel Evans III, according to his arrest report. He was accompanied by an underage girl. The pair got back into the car, then Evans got back out. This time another woman accompanied him: surveillance video revealed it was Hall. She and Evans talk about the credit card, try five times to get money out, fail five times. They left.
During the investigation, detectives located the SUV at 1671 Eastern Road in South Daytona, two-tenths of a mile from the Kangaroo station. The detectives concluded the address was that of the suspects. But it was Hall’s mother that detectives contacted, according to the two suspects’ arrest reports, and the mother who provided Hall’s phone number.
The two suspects were arrested Thursday. Their arrest reports does not explain how they were arrested or where.
Evans, 25, and Hall, 21, were booked at the Volusia County jail and charged with home invasion robbery.
Hall has four previous jail bookings in Flagler, going back to 2010, including an arrest for holding an open house party, and a burglary and grand theft arrest in 2010.
Genie says
Each time you post these pictures, I study these faces…..handsome young man, pretty young woman, and I wonder…how was it that you grew up to think that robbery is cool and ok? Who did that to you?
Why were you not raised to understand that what someone has is theirs? Why were you not raised to respect and value other people and yourselves?
Still haven’t come up with an answer. Two young lives, wasted.
jennifer Lopez says
not very good thieves huh!!!
and not very bright , too bad for that elderly woman.
Let's see now says
You know, a majority of America lives paycheck to paycheck. We’d like to have more, but if we don’t have it right now, we save and work for it. we WORK for it. Not steal, cheat, lie and HARM the innocent and defenseless. Where have the morals and ethics gone? We, in the middle-class, may not have as much as the rich, but my money is on we appreciate what we have so much more. WE WORK for and we earned everything we have. Our young should try it out some time. If you want a feeling of accomplishment. Earn your own keep.
Dee says
So true. I wonder the same thing so often…then my next question is usually how did we as a community not see these children on this path and find a way to step in for what they are lacking?
Retired FF says
You ask why this has happened that two young people do this. Well it is very simple. They have never been held accountable for anything growing up, never been taught values and certainly never had to work a day in their lives. Why, because generation after generation is living off welfare. Why should they get jobs when our liberal government gives them everything and even if they did have jobs the drug tests required would be dragged into court by the ACLU as being an invasion of privacy. We as a country are screwed big time!
The Truth says
Please, spare me the typical political babble. This has nothing to do with our government. Why is it that when someone does something good we commend their parents and their family but when something does bad we blame the government and our system. The fact is that these two have no guidance in their lives. We can probably blame many things, but please stop with the ‘Liberal’ government BS.
The fact of the matter is that people need help and there is nothing wrong with that. We have on side who wants to help and another side who believes that it’s easy to survive off of $7.25 an hour. No one meets in the middle, which is why we have a Congress who does nothing and a divide among our fellow citizens. I believe that BOTH parties want to do good and they want everyone to be successful, they just have different views on how to get there. Until we ALL work together, these types of crimes will continue to happen.
Bethechange says
Maybe it’s part of a sad, sometimes unrecognizable, usually legally paralyzing cycle that starts young and makes those on the periphery lament, how they can’t take them home and raise them. If only…Or the undiagnosed and/or untreated imbalances.
DUH says
It’s about drug addiction.
Heading North says
Alas it is true– they are a product of their upbringing and environment !
Seminole Pride says
First of all we have to stop praising kids for not accomplishing anything. Our schools are a joke. Kids need to be held accountable for themselves. No wonder the youth today have no morals or ethics because we as a society have allowed them go through life without responsibility for their actions.I can not believe how our schools do not offer to teach kids a trade. Instead of concentrating on subjects that most of them will never endure in their life.How many of our youth actually go to a 4 year college and graduate ? We need to change schools to teach trades for those who do not have the capability or resources to seek higher education.
ConcernedCitizen says
That’s an amazing number of recent felonies in her criminal history for her to be out on the street. What’s next for these two? Another slap on the hand and give them a chance to hurt innocent people again? What is the court waiting for – a murder? Disgusting,
except for one thing – fine and zealous police work. I’m thinking that if I get discouraged about the slaps on the hand, how must the police feel who put their lives on the line every time one of these dirtballs has to be pursued.
Outsider says
I agree. We have people running around with higher educations that can’t find jobs, yet we have to import workers to pick tomatoes. The fact is, contrary to what the the big education industry is peddling, not everyone will succeed in college and could do better off financially learning a skill, trade, or just start a business. I am definitely not diminishing the value of higher education if it’s in alignment with your career goals and capabilities, but we do have to recognize it’s not for everyone and we have to offer alternatives for those who choose not get a higher education. Regardless of the solution, there will always be those who choose to do nothing with their lives except rob from others.
franklin's tower says
Who cares about them? They’re violent criminals, lock them up for years and keep them off the street. Is the victim okay?