Tulsa Police Arrest 3 Teens For Murder Of Papa John's Driver

Three 17-year-old males have been booked into the Tulsa County jail on first degree murder in the death of Papa John's employee Robert Horton early Saturday morning.

Jermaine Savory, Damian Anderson and Frankie Jackson are being held in Horton's death. The arrests come two days after the Texas truck driver was shot and killed in the parking lot of the pizza restaurant at 11th and Delaware Avenue.

Horton, 53, was one of two truckers delivering produce to the restaurant when he was shot and killed at about 6 a.m.

Detectives say they started the case with only two 9 mm shell casings and no eye witnesses. They say it felt good to tell Robert Horton's family arrests had been made.

Horton was a military veteran who'd been married for 30 years. He worked for UPS, but subcontracted to deliver for Papa Johns in four states, and had done so for eight years.

He was minding his own business, working to support his family and had no idea he would cross paths with three teenagers, who told police they were out driving around, looking for someone to rob.

"Just trying to make a living and he ends up on the short end of a robbery attempt that goes horribly wrong," said Sgt. Dave Walker.

Reports show Savory told police he was driving the car when they spotted Horton. The other two jumped out with the gun, hopped a fence and tried to rob Horton, then he heard the shots and they jumped back in the car and they took off.

Officers also arrested Damian Anderson. Reports show he told police he was driving the car and the other two jumped out with the gun to do the robbery.

The third suspect, Frankie Jackson, only admitted to police he was in the vehicle driving around with Savory, nothing more.

"It's a sad commentary of 17-year-olds with guns, trying to rob somebody. We're one little trigger squeeze away from tragedy and that's what happened here," Walker said.

3/24/2013 Related Story: Widow: Man Killed At Tulsa Papa John's Was Loved, 'Now We've Lost Him'

Officers had very little evidence at the scene and no eye witnesses, so they immediately began searching surveillance cameras in the area and got what they thought was a possible suspect vehicle.

Then detectives went through stacks and stacks of old reports concerning other robberies and shootings, until they found a similar vehicle and got some names generally associated with that vehicle. They notified all officers in the department to be on the lookout.

At about 1:30 a.m. Monday, officers spotted the SUV near 51st and Peoria. They took the three teenage boys who were in the vehicle downtown for questioning, interviewing the two 17 year olds and letting the 15-year-old driver go.

After the interviews, a third 17-year-old suspect was taken in and interviewed, Walker said.

"It's a good feeling on Monday morning to be able to call the family in Dallas and say we resolved this end of that," Walker said.

We asked Walker if the three suspects had previous criminal records. Since they are juveniles, he could only say that law enforcement knows who they are.