A 29-year-old Little Rock man who robbed a beauty supply store and a bank a block apart in less than a day last year has accepted a 40-year prison sentence.
Sentencing papers filed on Tuesday show Brandon Marcelis pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims in a plea negotiated by deputy prosecutor Reese Lancaster and defense attorney Amy Douglas. Marcelis faced a potential life sentence at trial.
This will be Marcelis' second time in the penitentiary for armed robbery. In May 2009, he was sentenced to 10 years for robbing a woman who was washing clothes with her daughter at a North Little Rock coin-operated laundry. Marcelis stole the woman's purse and car after showing her that he had a gun in his pants.
Her boyfriend saw a man driving her car the next day and called police, and North Little Rock officers chased him down. Marcelis crashed the car and ran, but he was found hiding nearby. Investigators found a pistol under the driver's seat.
Marcelis told detectives the holdup was an impulse because he was "tired of not having any money." He was on probation at the time for residential burglary.
He was on parole in August 2018 when the Beauty Gallery at 5919 Baseline Road and the U.S. Bank branch at 6004 Baseline were robbed about 22 hours apart. The robber each time had a small pink-and-gray semi-automatic handgun, court files show.
The gunman ran from the bank, but police caught up with him about seven minutes later, arresting Marcelis at 9110 Lew Drive with the bank's money and a pink-and-silver pistol.
Marcelis confessed to both holdups, according to police, and the teller who was robbed, Kelly Ward, 31, and a salon employee, China Cross, 20, recognized him as the man who robbed them.
Metro on 04/11/2019