Arrest Made in Favorite Market Robbery

Payton Chase Cleveland

Police have arrested an Athens man and charged him in the May 19 robbery of an East Ridge convenience store.

Payton Chase Cleveland, 22, of a County Road 675 address in Athens, Tenn., was charged by Chattanooga police with Aggravated Robbery. He is currently in the Hamilton County Jail under a $50,000 bond. It is unclear when Cleveland will appear in East Ridge Municipal Court.

According to an affidavit of complaint, Chattanooga police had arrested Cleveland on aggravated robbery charge in Chattanooga on May 21. When a CPD detective interviewed Cleveland, he told the detective that he (Cleveland) committed an aggravated robbery in East Ridge.

According to the affidavit, when an East Ridge Police Department investigator interviewed Cleveland, he refused to speak without a lawyer being present.

According to East Ridge police, Cleveland entered the Favorite Market at 1301 Greenslake Road, flashed a weapon and demanded cash from the register. The clerk handed over more than $1,000 in cash and Cleveland took off in a waiting car that was seen by neighbors in the area.

Video surveillance provided by the store shows the suspect wearing a pink t-shirt, dark shorts and dark shoes. The victim of the robbery positively identified Cleveland when investigators presented her with six images during a photo lineup, the report states.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.