Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Campus Blotter: Citadel Quarterback Miguel Starks Arrested for Armed Robbery, Kidnapping
Friday, March 12, 2010 at 10:00 am
Today's Campus Blotter shows us two great ways to flush a promising college football career down the toilet and get your ass bounced from school in the process. For our lesson we turn to 19-year-old Miguel Starks, the one-time future of Citadel football...
Coaches at the South Carolina military college were so high on the Atlanta native that they planned to redesign their offense this year to match his skills.
Little did they know that Starks had been fine-tuning a run-and-shoot offense of his own: He is accused of taking part in a pair of armed robberies last month that were pulled off in strikingly similar fashion.
Also facing charges are former Citadel linebacker Reggie Rice, 22, and a pair of students from the College of Charleston: Stephen Francois, 20, a former high school friend of Starks'; and Sasha Gaskins, Francois' 18-year-old girlfriend.
The four were arrested for a February 27 burglary at the home of Josh Harpe, an assistant coach on the Citadel football team.
Investigators blame Miguel Starks (left) and Reggie Rice (center) for two armed robberies in late February. A judge praised the honesty of Stephen Francois (right), who is also in custody.
According to investigators, Gaskins was instructed by Starks to call Harpe from a pay phone and claim she was having car trouble at a nearby store. When Harpe came out of his house to help, Starks and Rice appeared in ski masks.
Starks allegedly aimed a semiautomatic handgun at Harpe, smacked him in the head with the gun, and ordered him back into the apartment. He then bound him with duct tape and threw him face down on the floor.
Harpe freed himself and reported the burglary to police, who quickly apprehended Starks and Rice, followed by their two accomplices.
As the three men stood side-by-side in court, it was Francois who shed light on another, more violent robbery three days earlier.
That heist allegedly began when Gaskins knocked on the door of former Citadel student Herbert Butler, whom Rice had known since 2006. Butler's girlfriend answered the door and allowed Gaskins in to use the phone while Starks and Rice secretly followed them inside, wearing masks over their faces.
According to investigators, both victims were bound with duct tape, and Butler's girlfriend was forced to her knees and briefly performed oral sex on one of the men before the other man ordered them to stop. After the men fled, the girlfriend found Butler bound in a closet with his pants pulled down.
The assailants stole electronic equipment and a debit card -- the same items they would target three days later at Harpe's home.
Butler and his girlfriend spent the night at her home and did not call police until the next day, claiming at the time that they had no way to contact the cops and were in "desparate need of sleep," according to the report.
Butler, too, is no stranger to law enforcement: He has been arrested numerous times for marijuana-related offenses. He is currently serving a 30-day sentence for selling pot to an undercover cop in Florida.
Starks, Rice, and Francois are charged with burglary and two counts each of armed robbery, kidnapping, and using a gun to commit a violent crime.
Francois claims that his lone role was to drive the getaway car. He was praised by a judge for coming clean about the Butler break-in.
Gaskins is also in jail on charges of being an accessory to the February 27 burglary and a participant in the Butler attack.
Additional charges are likely for the alleged sexual assault, and investigators have not ruled out drug charges. Authorities believe a fifth person may also be involved with the crimes.
The Citadel football team, meanwhile, is rooting through trash bins in search of its old playbooks.
Read last Friday's Campus Blotter: 160 Arrested in Irish Frenzy at Penn State.
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