Shackled hand and foot, two armed robbery suspects appeared at consecutive preliminary hearings Friday for three separate criminal cases, the most recent of which involved an alleged inside job at the Quiznos sandwich shop in Jackson.

Around that Dec. 2 armed robbery, prosecutors are alleging an extensive criminal background for defendants Caitlin McElwee and Nicholas Thomas.

A police informant's account - from a convicted felon and fellow inmate of Thomas' - appears important to the prosecution's case in all three proceedings in Amador Superior Court. The informant's account and a letter seized in a warrant search suggest the couple were users of the drugs Ecstasy and Oxycontin and planned crimes to finance drug buys.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Hermanson introduced evidence that Quiznos employee McElwee pulled the store's cash take from the register before closing time and without locking the front door - ignoring a reminder from a co-worker to lock it. An armed man, suspected to be Thomas, entered through the unlocked door at 6:59 p.m., one minute before closing time, testified Det. Chris Mynderup of the Jackson Police Department. A Dec. 19 warrant search of Thomas' home in Volcano turned up evidence, including clothing matching the all-black get-up that a restaurant surveillance video showed the suspect wore, Mynderup said.

"Black pants, black hooded sweatshirt, black bandana with white design, black beanie," Mynderup recited. "I found a Ledger Dispatch newspaper with an article about the robbery. It was the only newspaper in the residence."

Judge David Richmond ruled that probable cause exists to try the defendants in the Quiznos case and two other crimes, one involving another inside job robbery, this one of a Pine Grove restaurant last August. The third case is a residential burglary in Volcano.

McElwee typically worked at the Martell Quiznos, but was training a co-worker at the Jackson store the night of the robbery. Evidence shows McElwee and Thomas went on a shopping spree the day after the business was robbed.

"An employee at the Martell Quiznos observed McElwee the day after at the Sunrise Mall in Sacramento," Mynderup said. "She was with Nicholas Thomas. The employee saw them emerge from the store with several bags of expensive-looking clothes. She thought it was unusual, because McElwee was always talking about financial trouble."

Defense attorneys Jeff Seaton for McElwee and Steve Rechter for Thomas made sure the record showed that police informant James Griswald is a felon and hadn't received the indirect stamp of approval that comes with being placed on an official "confidential informant" list with a police department.

"Don't you have to show he's reliable?" Seaton asked.

"Yes, if I'm going to list him as a confidential informant," Mynderup said. "I didn't list him as a confidential informant."

McElwee will not be charged with the residential burglary in the Volcano area, only with receiving stolen property. She worked at the Pine Grove restaurant, Frank A's Pizza, when it was robbed, allegedly by Thomas. Evidence is comparatively thin against McElwee in the Pine Grove case, Seaton argued. Richmond acknowledged such, but found sufficient evidence exists to charge her in the case.

The evidence includes an unsigned letter that turned up in a warrant search, presumed by prosecutors to be written by McElwee concerning events involving her and her boyfriend around the time of the pizzeria robbery.

Amador County Sheriff's Deputy Luke McElfish said the letter describes "eating a lot of fizz," followed by sex in a hot tub and in a kitchen, waking up, going to work at Frank's and says the sex partner "stole a bunch of money from me." Fizz is a slang term for Ecstasy.

McElwee and Thomas will be arraigned Feb. 19 on charges relating to the Quiznos robbery, the Nov. 21 Volcano home burglary and the Aug. 18 Pine Grove pizzeria robbery.

Testimony about Griswald's informant account will pertain to each case, according to Mynderup and McElfish.

"Griswald said Thomas admitted to him that he and McElwee conspired to do robberies, because they needed money to buy Ecstasy and Oxycontin," Mynderup said.