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Convenience store bandit nets life sentence

Convenience store bandit nets life sentence

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Convenience store bandit nets life sentence

Coleman sentenced for Marion Dollar General robbery

ralphhardin@gmail.com Three strikes and your out. A Crittenden county man has received a life sentence for an aggravated robbery last September.

Scott Ellington, Prosecuting Attorney for the Second Judicial District of Arkansas announced last Thursday that a Crittenden County jury had convicted Roosevelt Rashun Coleman, 24, of Marion, of Aggravated Robbery and Commission of a Crime with a Firearm. The jury returned the verdict Wednesday evening after a three-day jury trail. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney J.

Matthew Coe prosecuted the case for the State of Arkansas.

Invoking the so-called “three strikes rule,” Circuit Judge Ralph Wilson sentenced Coleman to life in prison in the Arkansas Department of Corrections as a habitual violent offender. Coleman had been convicted of residential burglary

on two previous

occasions.

Ellington was satisfied with the sentence.

“Because of the hard work of Deputy Prosecuting Attorney J. Matthew Coe, as well as Detective Freddy Williams and law enforcement with the Marion Police Department,” he said.

“Crittenden County will not have to worry about this violent individual walking the streets of their community.”

Prosecutor Coe also had kudos for local law enforcement.

“I am appreciative of the hard work of Detective Freddy Williams and the Marion Police Department, as well as the help and assistance that they received from the citizens of Crittenden County in bringing Coleman to justice,” said Coe. “I applaud the jury’s difficult task in this case as well. Due to everyone’s efforts, this violent criminal has been removed from our community.”

On Sept. 14 of last year, Coleman entered the Dollar General on the I-55 Service Road in Marion, Arkansas, on September 14, 2015 around 8:30 p.m. As presented during the trial, he held the assistant manager at gun point and pushed her to the store’s cash registers, demanding money. Report showed that although the assistant manager complied with Coleman’s demand, he struck her on the head with the butt end of the gun, resulting in a significant injury to the assistant manager, which necessitated treatment at a local hospital. After taking cash from the registers, Coleman fled the store on foot.

Police investigated the incident, and Coleman was arrested and charged for the crime a few weeks later.º

By Ralph Hardin

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