Jury takes 10 minutes to give Arkansas man 25 years for armed robbery; fingerprints on bag of chips led to arrest

Thomas
Thomas

A Garland County Circuit Court jury only took about 10 minutes Tuesday to recommend a sentence of 25 years in prison for a Marion man for the 2016 armed robbery of a Hot Springs convenience store.

Terrell Deshawn Thomas, 24, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated robbery in the Aug. 3, 2016, holdup of the Shell convenience store at 866 Park Ave. Fingerprints left on a bag of chips led to his arrest 16 days after the crime.

Deputy Prosecutor Kara Petro said the state and defense were unable to come to an agreement on the sentence. They instead left it up to an eight-woman, four-man jury to decide his fate after hearing one day of testimony Tuesday from Hot Springs police, state Crime Lab personnel, the store clerk he robbed and other witnesses. Thomas did not testify.

She noted Thomas will have to serve 70 percent, or about 17-and-a-half years, before he is eligible for parole.

Petro said Thomas "really had no choice" except to plead guilty since his fingerprints were found at the scene, they had video of him in the store and police found the clothing he wore and a BB gun that resembled a real gun he had used during the robbery when he was arrested. She also noted he had acknowledged to detectives it was him when shown the video.

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Thomas is charged with a second count of aggravated robbery in connection with the May 15, 2016, armed robbery of Burger King, 228 W. Grand Ave., and with attempted aggravated robbery and other charges in connection with what police believe was the botched armed robbery of the Holiday Inn Express, 205 Metha Court, about an hour after the Burger King robbery.

Thomas is scheduled to stand trial on the aggravated robbery charge from the Burger King on Sept. 25 and is set to stand trial on the attempted robbery charge in October, but Petro said they may have a disposition hearing on the charges before then.

Thomas is classified as a habitual offender, having been convicted of two felony counts of theft of property on April 22, 2013, in Crittenden County. He was sentenced to five years in prison, with the entire sentence suspended.

According to the probable cause affidavit regarding the Shell robbery, on Aug. 3, 2016, a female employee, 57, told police a black male entered the store, selected a bag of chips and approached the register. As he placed them on the counter, the man pulled out a handgun, pointed it at her head and demanded money from the register.

She gave the man an undisclosed amount of money and he fled to a waiting vehicle. Surveillance footage captured the incident and the bag of chips was submitted to the state Crime Lab for fingerprints.

On Aug. 8, 2016, the crime lab matched the fingerprints collected from the chip bag to Thomas.

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