St. Johns County deputies say plate readers led them to armed bank robbery suspect within minutes

A 32-year-old man is in custody after St. Johns County deputies say he robbed a Regions Bank branch off County Road 210 with an AR-15-style rifle Friday afternoon, Oct. 16, and was tracked to his apartment within about 20 minutes using traffic cameras and license plate readers. The arrest comes as the sheriff's office is pulling roughly half of its plate reader cameras off state roads under a Florida Department of Transportation order, and four days before county commissioners are scheduled to debate whether the rest should stay.

The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office identified the suspect as Hubert Estelle, 32. He faces charges of armed robbery with a firearm, grand theft, five counts of aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, and wearing a mask or hood while committing a felony, according to the sheriff's office. The charges are accusations; Estelle has not been convicted, and court records showing an attorney or a bond amount were not available Sunday.

What deputies say happened

According to the sheriff's office, a man walked into the Regions Bank on St. Johns Common Parkway, just off County Road 210 in northwest St. Johns County, shortly after 3 p.m. Friday. He wore a face mask, gloves and dark clothing and carried an AR-15-style rifle, deputies said. He demanded money and threatened violence, and employees handed over cash so he would leave. The sheriff's office has not said how much money was taken.

Bank employees gave deputies a description of the getaway car: a white Audi sedan with white tape covering its license plate.

The branch sits across from the St. Johns Golf and Country Club, according to the St. Johns Citizen, in a commercial area along County Road 210.

How the car was tracked

The tape over the plate did not stop investigators from finding the Audi, according to the sheriff's office. Within minutes of the robbery, traffic cameras and license plate reader cameras captured a white Audi matching the description in the area of St. Johns Parkway, deputies said.

Analysts at the agency's Real Time Intelligence Center then went back through earlier camera images and found the same car before the robbery, before the plate had been covered, according to News4Jax. That gave investigators a plate number to work with.

By 3:23 p.m., about 15 minutes after the robbery was reported, deputies had found the car at the Ascend Luxury Apartments on Mossy Pine Lane, off State Road 9B and Peyton Parkway, News4Jax reported. Deputies locked down the complex and evacuated residents from the building where they believed the suspect was. Aviation and drone units helped with the search, Action News Jax reported.

The sheriff's office SWAT team found Estelle inside his apartment and took him into custody, deputies said. A search of the apartment turned up an AR-15-style rifle and clothing that deputies say matches what the robber wore.

The timeline

The sequence of events, as described by the sheriff's office and local news reports, ran as follows.

The sheriff's case for plate readers

Sheriff Robert Hardwick used the arrest to defend the technology. In a statement, he said technology is critical when crime occurs and credited the cameras and plate readers with identifying the vehicle quickly and narrowing down where the suspect was before other businesses could be threatened. He said the agency is committed to using the technology responsibly, with safeguards in place.

The sheriff's office has grown its network sharply. In 2023, the agency used about 20 plate reader cameras, monitored from a real-time intelligence center staffed by four people, according to an Action News Jax investigation at the time. That investigation also found plate readers installed on state roads in Northeast Florida without FDOT permits. By this fall, the county had roughly 180 of the cameras, many of them made by Flock Safety, one of the largest vendors in the field.

The state order and the local debate

The robbery arrived in the middle of a statewide fight over the cameras. On Aug. 31, FDOT ordered local law enforcement agencies to remove automated license plate readers from rights of way on the State Highway System within 30 days, revoking earlier approvals and halting new ones. The department cited privacy concerns, reports of misuse and what it called an exponential increase in deployments. FDOT said it would remove any devices that remained after the deadline. Gov. Ron DeSantis has called the technology out of control and said the Legislature should take up the issue.

The order does not reach roads controlled by counties and cities. In St. Johns County, the sheriff's office says roughly half of its approximately 182 cameras must come down because they sit on state rights of way, while readers on county roads remain in use for now, News4Jax reported. Hardwick said in September that his office would comply while remaining confident in the effectiveness of the cameras, and that it supports legislation setting clear standards for their use.

Neighboring agencies have gone further. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters announced in September that his office would stop using plate reader technology, and Nassau County said it would stop using its 34 Flock cameras. Putnam County's sheriff also announced he would discontinue the cameras.

St. Johns County commissioners have placed the county's use of Flock cameras on their Oct. 20 agenda for public discussion, focused on whether readers should keep operating on county rights of way. Residents opposed to the cameras have gathered more than 1,000 signatures on a petition, according to local reports. Commissioners have read the sheriff's plans differently, with at least one suggesting removals could go beyond state roads.

The Friday arrest gives the sheriff's office a fresh example to bring to that meeting. The cameras that first spotted the Audi near St. Johns Parkway were part of the county's existing network; the sheriff's office has not said whether any of them stand on state or county right of way, or whether they are among those slated for removal.

What's next

Armed robbery with a firearm is a first-degree felony in Florida punishable by up to life in prison. The State Attorney's Office for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which covers St. Johns County, will decide which charges to file formally.

The County Commission takes up the plate reader question at its meeting Tuesday, Oct. 20.