Two men accused of shooting at police in Mississippi and committing a robbery in Helena-West Helena late last year now face federal gun charges in Arkansas, court filings show.
Cody Allen Eggemeyer, 27, and Michael Manis, 33, were arrested Dec. 28 at the Crown Inn in Brinkley by Arkansas State Police and a U.S. marshal, about three days after authorities say the men began a string of crimes with a Christmas Day home-invasion robbery in northern Mississippi.
On Tuesday, both men, who are felons recently released from prisons in Texas, were charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The charge in the complaint relates to at least one of several firearms that state police investigators say they found inside the motel room where Eggemeyer and Manis were arrested.
The complaint, written by FBI Special Agent Ward Seale, details the events that led to the apprehension of Eggemeyer and Manis. It also contains more information about the robbery of a Conoco gas station in Helena-West Helena on Dec. 26.
On Wednesday, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said troopers initially investigated the robbery but have since turned the investigation over to federal authorities.
“The search warrant at the motel and any evidence that was found there, plus the Helena robbery, it all got rolled into one, and the Feds are handling it,” Sadler said.
As of Wednesday evening, neither man had been charged in the robbery. They could face additional charges once federal prosecutors present evidence before a grand jury.
Calls to officials in Mississippi about investigations into Eggemeyer and Manis weren’t returned by Wednesday evening.
In the complaint, Seale wrote that state troopers were led to the Crown Inn after Arkansas State Police Special Agent Jason Martin “received information” that Eggemeyer and Manis were staying there.
At the time, the two men were wanted on a Mississippi warrant accusing them of shooting at police in the Mississippi towns of Batesville and Sardis on Dec. 27.
When Martin arrived at the motel on the afternoon of Dec. 28, he spotted a Ford F-150 with Texas license plates that matched the description of the pickup involved in the gunfire directed at police. Martin and another trooper also saw two men, whom they recognized as Eggemeyer and Manis, load items into the pickup, according to the complaint.
The men were arrested without incident, and according to the criminal complaint, the troopers found four firearms, a ski mask and ammunition of various calibers inside the men’s motel room.
Inside the pickup, troopers found four other firearms, an air rifle, several bullets, a large knife and a billy club.
The troopers also found a camouflage jacket and a “uniquely designed” T-shirt that Seale said were similar to the ones worn by the robbers photographed by surveillance cameras inside the Helena-West Helena gas station. One of the men in the surveillance photos also “is consistent in appearance with Manis,” Seale wrote.
According to the complaint, Eggemeyer was convicted in Texas of felony criminal mischief in 2006 and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon in 2008. For the latter charge, he received a five-year prison sentence after a judge revoked an earlier deferred sentence. Eggemeyer was released from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in September.
Manis was convicted in Texas of burglary in 2009 and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released from prison on Dec. 20, just five days before the home invasion.
Both Eggemeyer and Manis were being held Wednesday at the Pulaski County jail.
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 01/09/2014