Gunderson’s attempted robbery suspects linked to national theft ring

FARGO (KVRR-KFGO) – The two men arrested in Michigan last week for an attempted armed robbery at Gunderson’s Jewelers in Fargo had only recently been released from prison for their roles in a smash-and-grab robbery gang that operated across the country.

Dajuan Marcellus and Kordaryl Cross were members of a group of more than a dozen people from the Detroit area who were accused and sentenced between 2014 and 2018 for robberies in nine states which involved the use of sledgehammers to steal Rolexes from jewelry stores.

Parole violation documents filed against Marcellus and Cross last week provide a detailed account of the attempted robbery at Gunderson’s. The reports say the car the suspects were in was stolen from a Fargo residence earlier in the day.

Surveillance video at the store showed five people were in the car when it arrived and three people in the back seat approached the store in camouflage and masks. They got into the vestibule area of the store before the security guard locked the interior doors. The security guard reported seeing one of the men pull a handgun before the men turned and fled.

The report says detectives reviewing traffic camera footage after the attempt noticed a white Jeep appeared to be traveling in tandem with the stolen car as it made its way around Fargo including the two vehicles pulling into the same apartment complex prior to the Gundersons robbery attempt. The Jeep appeared to wait at the complex during the robbery attempt, and the stolen vehicle was later recovered there.

Marcellus and Cross were pulled over in Paw Paw, Michigan in the Jeep, which was rented to Marcellus. Bags with camouflage clothing and sledgehammers were found in the car. There were also receipts from a Taco Bell and Magic City Surplus in Minot in the vehicle.

Both men were indicted in 2015 on conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery related to a theft at Little’s Jewelry in Mississippi.

Marcellus was also involved in robberies in North Carolina and in Nebraska, at a Gunderson’s store in Omaha. He given a seven year sentence for those crimes in 2018. Cross was sentenced in 2015 to eight years for his role in robberies in New York and Maryland. Both men were put on supervised release in 2022.