Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Same Store Is Robbed 2nd Time : Crime: The holdup occurs hours after a judge orders the trial of four men in a previous heist at the Antelope Valley Mall.

Hours after four men were ordered to stand trial for robbing a jewelry store at the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale, four other men executed an almost identical robbery of the same store Thursday night, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies reported.

In both incidents, the robbers entered the store wearing masks, at gunpoint ordered the employees to lie on the floor, and then smashed the glass display cases.

The major difference was that suspected robbers in the original June 2 holdup were captured shortly after shootouts with security guards and a sheriff’s deputy. Thursday night’s group escaped with about $150,000 worth of jewelry, despite a 2 1/2-hour search by deputies who cordoned off and evacuated the mall.

Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Jerry Wolf said the two robberies at the same place may only be coincidence, but investigators will attempt to determine if there is a link between the two groups of robbers.

“The robberies were very similar so we are not eliminating anything,” he said.

However, Wolf said, mall jewelry stores are frequent targets of roving groups of thieves in the state.

“This is a common thing,” Wolf said. “People have been moving up and down the state doing these kind of robberies. I doubt these people were from around here at all.”

In the latest robbery, the four robbers entered Classic Jewelers at 8:30 p.m. One man held two employees at gunpoint while the others smashed the newly replaced glass in the display cases and took the jewelry.

“All four suspects, who were wearing ski masks, ran from the store but were confronted by mall security officers at one of the exits,” Deputy Benita Hinojos said. “The suspects then ran back into the mall and blended into the crowd.”

In another coincidence, the prosecutor assigned to the first robbery case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Rhodes-Rogers, happened to be shopping in the mall with her infant near the jewelry store during Thursday night’s robbery.

“She heard glass breaking and people yelling, and crouched down,” said John Spillane, head deputy district attorney in Lancaster. But Rhodes-Rogers did not see the robbers, he added.

Deputies arrived on the scene, cordoned off the mall and screened patrons as they were allowed to leave, but did not locate the robbers, Hinojos said. The search of the mall by 30 deputies and two dogs was called off at 11 p.m.

Hours before the robbery, four men were ordered by an Antelope Municipal Court judge to stand trial in the robbery of Classic Jewelers two weeks earlier and for several other crimes. In that case, the robbers took an estimated $700,000 in jewelry, exchanged fire with security guards at one location and a sheriff’s deputy at another, stole a car and led deputies on a high speed chase before being captured.

Jailed after that two-hour episode were Jabarr Abdul Wheeler, 20, of Compton; Lamont Terrell Craig, 23, of Hawthorne; Darnell Du-shyne Sullivan, 25, of Los Angeles, and Clyde R. Hayes, 26, of Louisiana.

The two armed-robberies in 15 days left the manager of Classic Jewelers stunned.

“If you work in jewelry you expect that once or twice in your life this is going to happen,” said Fred, who asked that his full name not be used. “But twice in two weeks? It’s a little shocking. I guess it was just luck. Bad luck.”

He said the store and the mall are planning to increase security but would not discuss what measures would be taken.

“I didn’t think it would happen twice,” Fred said. “I want to try to make sure there isn’t a third.”