Couple allegedly pulls knife on man and robs him of his sketchbook over a drawing

A 41-year-old man allegedly pulled a knife on another individual over a sketchbook that supposedly contained naked pictures of his 38-year-old girlfriend.

Jared David Skewis and Melanie R. Cameron were arrested on April 27, more than a month after Olympia police established probable cause to arrest them for first-degree robbery.

According to the police report, a robbery with a knife was reported by an AMPM store on Evergreen Park Drive SW late evening on March 21.

A man involved in the incident told police that a man and a woman, later identified as Skewis and Cameron, confronted him near Evergreen Park Drive and Cooper Point Auto Mall Drive.

The man said Skewis accused him of drawing naked images of his girlfriend Cameron. When he denied the accusations, Skewis pulled out a knife, brandished it, and told him to hand over his backpack and sketchpad, the report said. The suspect also warned that he was “not f*cking around,” the man said.

The weapon was described as a folding knife. The man told police that he believed Skewis would hurt him, so he ran to an AMPM store across the street. The suspects followed him and successfully grabbed his sketchbook and pens from his backpack. He stated that the sketchbook contained cartoon drawings. The report said that Skewis flipped the blade and pointed it at the man, who told police he believed that Skewis would cut him with his knife.

After his sketchbook was stolen, he asked an employee of the AMPM to call the police. Two AMPM employees told an officer that they witnessed the theft by the two suspects.

Arrest

On April 27, police located the suspects inside a tent while responding to a disturbance near Crosby Loop. Skewis initially tried to hide under the covers while Cameron denied that he was in the tent, but a K9 unit making noise outside the tent prompted the suspect to surrender.

Skewis said someone told him the man’s journal contained naked pictures of his girlfriend, causing him to confront that individual on March 21. The suspect said he grabbed the sketchbook from the man’s backpack and saw the images.

The suspect admitted to stealing the sketchbook but denied ever taking out a knife during the incident, though he told police that he carried a knife “every once in a while.”

Cameron similarly said that she was not aware of a knife being present during the incident. She admitted to being with Skewis that night and stealing the sketchbook together.

The suspects accused the man of stalking them, police said. Cameron also referred to the man as a “pervert.”

Skewis and Cameron were booked into the Thurston County Jail for first-degree robbery. A search of Skewis yielded a bag of suspected fentanyl in a bag in his hand and methamphetamine, along with other paraphernalia in his pockets.