Pair charged in fireworks store robbery sentenced to state prison

The defendants charged in the Halloween robbery of a Pahrump fireworks business accepted a guilty plea agreement for their respective roles in the crime.

Jacob Ryan Porter will spend five to 12-1/2 years in the Nevada Department of Corrections, along with five years’ probation. The sentencing was handed down by Judge Kim Wanker.

He also received 196 days credit for time already served for the incident at Area 51 Fireworks.

Though details on the plea agreement were not disclosed in the case summary, Porter was charged Nov. 4 by the district attorney’s office with burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon; robbery with use of a deadly weapon, two counts; conspiracy to commit robbery, first degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon; conspiracy to commit kidnapping; and battery causing substantial bodily harm, all felonies.

He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $267 to the business, along with $2454.10 for the store clerk’s medical bills, as the clerk was injured after a scuffle during the robbery.

Co-defendant Cassandra Lynn Port meanwhile was sentenced for four to 10 years in the Nevada Department of Corrections with 120 days credit for time served. She was facing charges from the district attorney’s office of burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon; robbery with use of a deadly weapon, two counts; conspiracy to commit robbery, first degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon; conspiracy to commit kidnapping, all felonies.

Port’s public defender,Lisa Chamlee, argued to have her client taken out of custody and put on house arrest for 90 days to allow her to give birth to her baby at home.

That motion was denied.

Nye County Sheriff’s Office had received a 911 call from an employee at the store reporting a robbery in progress, just before 9 p.m.

Responding deputies learned that a man and a woman held up the cashier at gunpoint, took the money from the store’s register and eventually fled the store on foot.

Based on a clothing description of the suspects and the reported general direction in which they had fled, deputies located the man, later identified as Porter, running from the scene.

Deputies ordered Porter to stop but instead, he resisted and continued running. Porter was apprehended a short time later.

The subsequent investigation confirmed that Porter had indeed been one of the two suspects involved in the armed robbery of the business.

He was taken into custody and later booked at the Nye County Detention Center in Pahrump.

Port was arrested on a Nye County robbery warrant by Henderson Police Department on Nov. 1 in the evening during a routine traffic stop and booked into that city’s jail.

During the investigation, it was determined that the suspects attempted to force the cashier to the back office portion of the store, at which point a second employee intervened and became severely injured during an altercation with the suspects.

The injured employee was treated at Desert View Hospital and released.

Pahrump Valley Times Editor Arnold M. Knightly contributed to this story.