TEXARKANA, Texas–A Texarkana woman has been charged with aggravated robbery for allegedly helping to arrange the armed holdup of a woman whose hair she had just styled.
Kierra Lajuana Forte, 23, allegedly caught sight of a large amount of cash in a woman’s purse as she stood over her doing her hair at a residence in the 900 block of Richmond Road on Feb. 24, according to a probable cause affidavit filed last week in Bowie County.
The client, who had two children with her, told investigators that Forte picked her up from near the house because she had trouble navigating a steep driveway in her car. The woman said that Forte would have been easily able to see the cash in a wallet in her purse while doing her hair and that she paid for the hair appointment with $65 she handed to Forte after pulling it from her bra.
Forte allegedly spoke with a man who was in the house before the appointment was over. The man reportedly said he was leaving to “take care of business” and told Forte “he loved her” not long before the hair appointment ended.
When Forte drove the woman and her children back to where she had left her car about a block away, two men wearing masks immediately approached on both sides of the car with guns. One of the men leaned over Forte on the driver’s side and allegedly said, “Bitch, give me your wallet or I’m going to shoot you.”
The woman told investigators that she “immediately recognized” the man’s voice as belonging to the man who had been in the house on Richmond Road while she was getting her hair done.
She had her purse with the wallet and cash she had just received from a tax refund tucked tightly under her arm, but willingly handed it over when the men “pointed their guns at her children,” the affidavit said.
“The suspect also reached into her bra, where she had previously removed money from, and then fled the scene,” the affidavit said. “She stated that there was no additional money in her bra after she had paid for her hair.”
In reviewing body camera footage recorded by a patrol officer who responded to a 911 call after the robbery, investigators noticed that the robbery victim was “visibly shaken” while Forte leaned across her car and spoke to the officers “nonchalantly” and with an “extremely calm demeanor.”
During the robbery the men had not taken Forte’s cell phone even though it had been sitting on her lap throughout the holdup.
Noting that the armed men specifically targeted the woman’s wallet and bra and left a valuable cell phone behind, investigators suspected Forte was in on the robbery.
Investigators later determined through a tip that Forte and the man she had talked with in the house during the alleged victim’s hair appointment had checked into a local hotel together after the robbery. Investigators obtained video footage from the hotel which reportedly showed Forte and Samondre Lewis, 23, together at the hotel.
The woman reportedly identified Lewis as the man who had been in the house while she was having her hair styled and whose voice she recognized during the robbery. Court records show that Lewis is currently being held in the Bowie County jail on charges of aggravated robbery with bond set at $2 million.
Forte is currently being held in the Bowie County jail. Bond information was not available for her on Monday.
Aggravated robbery is punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison, if there is a conviction.
