A 19-year-old Little Rock man responsible for armed robberies at seven stores and restaurants, mostly along a half-mile stretch of Geyer Springs Road, around Thanksgiving has accepted a 13-year prison sentence.
Doriece Lamont Hill pleaded guilty to seven counts of aggravated robbery in exchange for the 13-year sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza, filings Wednesday show.
According to the plea deal negotiated by deputy prosecutor Justin Harper and Hill's public defender, Lisa Walton, Hill will serve a five-year suspended sentence once he's released from prison.
Hill's brother and a family friend helped him in a couple of the robberies, but Hill was the first of the three men to be arrested. He was nabbed Dec. 1, nine days after the first robbery, when police interrupted him trying to rob a couple in a bank parking lot.
According to police reports and court records, the robberies began Nov. 22, six days before Thanksgiving, at the Tobacco Outlet at 8414 Geyer Springs Road when clerks Martin Harris, 27 and Jennifer Hamilton, 33, were accosted by a pistol-brandishing robber who emptied the cash register before fleeing.
Two days later, clerk Imram Sarker at the Dollar Plus Market at 9023 Geyer Springs was robbed by a gunman. On Nov. 25, DK Gas Station clerk Kyle Nordeck, 37, was robbed at that store at 8209 Geyer Springs by an armed masked man.
On Nov. 26, Valero store clerk Ololede Oduwole, 35, was the next victim when he was held up at the convenience store at 6500 Mabelvale Cutoff. The robber struck on Thanksgiving at Sharks restaurant at 8824 Geyer Springs, robbing workers Mohammed Alawana, 42, and Ali Barkat, 25.
The next day, Nov. 29, the robber struck twice, first at the Little Caesar's Pizza at 8500 Geyer Springs where he pistol-whipped worker Kelton Bradford, 19. Next, he went to the Sonic at 8100 Geyer Springs where workers Sasha Giles, 26, Sherri Johnson, 27, and Antwong Miles, 43, were his victims.
Hill came to the attention of police two days later when patrol officers caught him trying to carjack Maranda Scheibner, 23, of Little Rock and Louis Asher, 22, of Conway as they sat in their vehicle in the drive-thru at the Bank of America branch at 8200 Geyer Springs. Hill was carrying a .40-caliber pistol outfitted with a laser sight.
Under arrest, Hill admitted to what he had done. He told police he had not always acted alone but would not name the other two men.
After Hill's arrest, detectives reexamined security video from the first holdup at the Tobacco Outlet to take a closer look at two men who had been acting suspiciously at the store a few minutes before it was robbed.
They identified the men as Hill's brother, Gaveyon Hill, 20, and the brothers' friend Tecorian Mitchell, 21. The recording shows the men entering the store and briefly looking around before leaving, just before the gunman appears.
The pair were already known to police, court filings show. Mitchell had been on probation about nine months at the time for some car break-ins in Little Rock while Gaveyon Hill had been arrested in December 2016 on residential-burglary charges.
Hill was 16 at the time and initially charged as an adult, but the case was transferred to juvenile court four months later over the objections of prosecutors.
When the tobacco store was robbed again -- this time by two men -- on Dec. 9, barely a week after Doriece Hill's arrest, detectives showed clerk Cassandra Harris a picture of Gaveyon Hill, and she recognized him as the AR-15 rifle-carrying robber who had held her up, police said.
Harris couldn't say that the second robber was Mitchell, but police arrested Mitchell after seeing Mitchell was wearing the same shoes as the second robber. Detectives got arrest warrants for them and put Mitchell's home on Tulip Road under surveillance.
That led to police arresting Mitchell and Gaveyon Hill at the residence on Dec. 11 when they arrived home shortly after the Game Xchange at 3412 S University Ave. was robbed.
The two were initially charged with that holdup, but the cases were dropped in plea negotiations. A woman who was arrested with them that day, Abriyahn Michelle Tell, 20, of Little Rock is now the sole person charged in Game Xchange holdup. Her aggravated-robbery case remains pending.
Both Mitchell and Gaveyon Hill received 10-year prison terms after each pleaded guilty in June to two counts of aggravated robbery.