Girl, 16, to be tried as adult in string of armed robberies in Little Rock

Natalie Lockhart
Natalie Lockhart

A 16-year-old girl accused of four armed robberies in Little Rock, two of them at the same doughnut shop in two weeks, will be prosecuted as an adult, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled Monday.

Rejecting Natalie Michelle Lockhart's request to be transferred to juvenile court, Judge Barry Sims cited testimony that Lockhart displayed a gun during three of those holdups and threatened to shoot a clerk at the fourth robbery, where no weapon was displayed.

"Thank God that personal injury did not result," Sims said. "I think anytime someone pulls a gun on three people, they desire to be treated as an adult. The gun [allegations] took things out from being a petty thief."

Lockhart's attorney, Ricky Hicks, had called the girl, who was arrested about a month before turning 17, a "petty thief who's stealing things to support a drug habit."

Hicks urged the judge to transfer Lockhart to juvenile court instead of "sending her off to the college of criminality" by allowing her to be prosecuted as an adult.

The girl had been in juvenile court for much of last year, beginning in February 2016, shortly after she turned 16, on three misdemeanor theft counts. According to testimony, Lockhart pleaded guilty to one count while the other two were dismissed. But she was twice charged with two more thefts, one of them in April, shortly after she'd been placed on juvenile probation.

Deputy prosecutors Meredith Moore and Jennings Morgan argued that adult court was the appropriate venue to decide the felony charges against Lockhart. If the girl would not comply with juvenile authorities when she was 16, it was unlikely she would now that she's 17, Moore told the judge.

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"It appears they've done all they can do for her out there," Sims said, noting that she'd had a variety of counseling and therapy, including a mentor, but continued to get bad grades and miss school.

Lockhart was arrested in January shortly after the Shipley's Donuts on South University Avenue was robbed for the second time in about two weeks. She was apprehended at her Irving Drive home a half-mile away.

According to testimony, police went to her house in January after a Shipley's employee reported that the store had been robbed by the same person who'd held up the doughnut shop in December.

Detective Julio Gill said police were already looking for Lockhart to arrest her on warrants from that December holdup. In that heist, a robber, described as a woman dressed like a man, had threatened to blow the heads off of Shipley clerks if they didn't turn over the money fast enough.

Her mother let officers search the residence, and police found marijuana and scales, along with a silver revolver and ammunition, Gill testified, saying the gun matched the description of the one the robber had displayed in the Shipley's holdup earlier that day.

Lockhart declined to talk with police about the Shipley's robberies. But she was out on bail at that time on aggravated robbery charges stemming from two November holdups, crimes she had implicated herself in, detective Chris Johnson told the judge.

Johnson testified that Lockhart had admitted in November to two holdups two days apart, first at the Game X Change video game store, 3412 S. University Ave., and then at the Asian Mart in the Broadmoor Shopping Center, 3002 S. University Ave.

The Nov. 19 game-store holdup had been attributed to two men, and police had few leads when the Asian Mart was robbed by a gunman on Nov. 21, Johnson testified.

Surveillance video of the Asian Mart, taken from a neighboring business, provided a clear photograph of the robber, who was identified as Lockhart by another officer, Johnson told the judge.

She admitted to the Asian Mart robbery and then the Game X Change holdup, the detective said.

Lockhart's mother testified that her only daughter had not been the same since turning 16 last year. A licensed practical nurse who works two full-time jobs, the mother said her daughter had been a well-behaved obedient child who got good grades -- until shortly after she turned 16 and began to hang out with friends that her mother said she didn't like and wouldn't allow in their home.

She told the judge she discovered her daughter was using drugs when she cleaned the girl's bedroom and found pills and marijuana.

"I think she was trying to make herself more than she was ... trying to impress her friends," the mother testified.

Metro on 03/15/2017

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