WESTERLY — Police will charge Jason Bolduc today with first-degree armed robbery of the 7-Eleven store Monday. And it turns out they had him on Tuesday, but didn’t know then that he was their guy.

Edward Northup of Westerly, and Gregory Whiting of East Providence, now charged with a brutal attack during a home invasion in Pawcatuck Tuesday, fled police in a high-speed chase through town, heading to Bolduc’s house on Pearl Street.

Based on Washington County Superior Court records, police spoke to Bolduc, but believing at the time that the suspects in the convenience store holdup were both black, never took him into custody.

Bolduc, 29, was arrested Thursday afternoon, without incident, according to Westerly Police Chief Edward A. Mello.  He was apprehended at a residence on Marriott Avenue, also in the North End. Mello praised patrol officers for bringing Bolduc in so quickly. He was set to be arraigned this morning in Fourth Division District Court where he will be charged with first-degree robbery, a capital offense in Rhode Island. Capital convictions can result in life in prison.

Police said he would be held without bail given the seriousness of the crime. Indeed, according to statements, and police documents, it was Bolduc who brandished the weapon in the robbery – a seven-inch knife.

According to police documents, Whiting, 45, who was charged Wednesday afternoon with capital offenses in Connecticut and Rhode Island related to the home invasion and subsequent chase, told police in a signed statement Wednesday morning of Bolduc’s role in the 7-Eleven robbery.  By that time, Bolduc had fled.

Whiting and Westerly resident Gregory Northup, 37, a felon with a long, violent criminal history, were charged by Westerly police with a number of misdemeanor and felony charges related to the chase and they were ordered held without bail by a Washington County Superior Court judge Wednesday as probation violators.

Both men have been on parole since being released from prison on unrelated charges: Whiting on a 25-year sentence for a 1987 Barrington armed robbery and Northup for a charge of driving to endanger, death resulting and a DUI death in 2002.

After allegedly forcing his way into the home of an elderly couple on River Road, choking, beating and robbing both, with the 72 year woman taking the worst of it –  she has since been treated and released from both the Westerly and Rhode Island hospitals – Whiting got into the car and Northup drove from the scene, according to reports and the pair fled into Westerly.

They headed down Beach Street toward Watch Hill and turned onto Airport Road, with two Westerly patrol cars right behind. The suspects hit a car, and continued to take police on a wild chase through residential neighborhoods at speeds in excess of 70 mph until the car finally stopped at Bolduc’s house at 45 Pearl St.  Police originally declined to say what relationship that address had with the suspects, but it’s now clear why they were headed there: Bolduc and Whiting were accomplices.

According to the confession signed by Whiting, he and Bolduc spent Sunday night “out partying ….smoking crack and drinking.” It was around 5 a.m. and, according to statements given to police, the pair was “desperate” when they parked the Monte Carlo on Rt. 1 near the entrance to Rt. 78, and made their way into the 7-Eleven.  

Whiting and Bolduc, wearing hooded sweatshirts and, the clerk said, ski masks, went behind the counter and as Bolduc held the knife, Whiting told the clerk, “We are desperate,” demanded money and a carton of Newport cigarettes. Bolduc told Whiting that “someone was coming” so the two left the store, ran across the roadway, got into the car and “drove to Bolduc’s house on Pearl Street.”

On Tuesday, when Whiting and Northup rammed a gate near Bolduc’s Pearl Street house, Whiting took off on foot as Northup hid in the back seat of the car. Police were pursuing Whiting, when one saw Bolduc and a woman in the front yard.

Bolduc pointed toward the house. Whiting had run into the house – and, within a few moments, police had Whiting on the floor attempting to handcuff him even as he “violently resisted.” One officer reported he “delivered one second burst of Capstun into Whiting’s face with little to no effect.” Three officers struggled with a “very violent” Whiting and managed to handcuff him and get him into a patrol car.

In the meantime, an officer spoke to Bolduc and he admitted to knowing Whiting but said he hadn’t seen him in “awhile.” Bolduc was not questioned further and was not taken into custody. Bolduc has a lengthy criminal record for charges ranging from receiving stolen goods to shoplifting, but no violent crimes.