• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Dec 16, 2009 - Page: 5B

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GONZALES — A DNA match led to the arrest of a Geismar man Monday in the Thanksgiving Day 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping of three McDonald’s employees as they were trying to deposit $8,000 in store receipts, police said Tuesday.

The suspect, Marquis Favre, 21, 37222 Anderson Road, is also the boyfriend of the restaurant’s assistant manager at the time and she is now a person of interest in the robbery investigation, police said in a statement.

The assistant manager was one of the three employees robbed and kidnapped in the incident, police said.

Favre, who has made no statement that implicated his girlfriend, was arrested and booked Monday into the Ascension Parish Jail on counts of armed robbery, aggravated kidnapping and theft, police and jail officials said.

On Nov. 25, 2008 — two days before the robbery and kidnapping — the assistant manager, whom police would not identify, picked up Favre from the St. James Parish Jail, Gonzales police Sgt. Steve Nethken said Tuesday.

The assistant manager, who quit her job at McDonald’s this week, has denied any involvement in the incident and has said she doesn’t believe her boyfriend is the culprit, Nethken said.

Police said Favre accosted the assistant manager of the Airline Highway restaurant and two other employees at the Capitol One Bank on Burnside Avenue.

Wearing a bandana or shirt over his face and brandishing a pistol, Favre ordered the assistant manager, who was at the ATM, back into her vehicle, police said.

He then took the three McDonald’s employees hostage and forced them to drive him to the foot of the Sunshine Bridge on La. 70 in St. James Parish.

The employees were forced out of the vehicle and Favre drove off, police said.

The stolen vehicle was recovered later by St. James Parish sheriff’s deputies, and some clothing — gloves and a blue, hooded sweatshirt — were found inside, Nethken said.

Louisiana State Police Crime Lab matched DNA from the vehicle to Favre, who on Tuesday remained in Ascension Parish Jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond, police said.