A 20-year-old man was ordered to stand trial on 14 counts of robbery and attempted robbery in the Cover My Strap theft series in which a robber held a weapon underneath a foot-long cloth in robberies in National City and Bonita.
The preliminary hearing for Billy DeWayne Cook Jr. lasted four days before Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sontag.
Several victims testified, but most of the witnesses were police officers who testified about what victims told them.
The Cover My Strap series got its nickname from images taken from security cameras of a masked gunman holding an apparently sawed-off shotgun under a foot-long cloth.
The South Bay stores included Cricket Wireless and Verizon Wireless, both of which were robbed in National City on Nov. 21. A Bonita liquor store was held up the next day.
An attempted robbery occurred at a gas station in Otay Mesa, and a Nestor market was held up shortly afterward on Nov. 24.
Cook Jr. remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility on $200,000 bail.
