Wilmjax News

The Fort Sill National Bank on Yadkin Road was robbed at gunpoint about 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Three armed men entered the bank at 6243 Yadkin Road and displayed their handguns, according to Jamie Smith, spokeswoman for the Fayetteville Police Department.

The robbers left on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, she said.

Witnesses described the robbers as three black men between the ages of 18 and 25.

Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives at 433-1856 or Crime Stoppers at 483-8477.

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(11/09/07 — FAYETTEVILLE) - Fayetteville Police detectives are asking for the public’s help to identify a man who brutally beat a convenience store clerk at the Hess-Wilco Station on Raeford Road Friday morning.

Officials say the attack happened sometime between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. at the store in the 3700-blok of Raeford Road. Officials say the suspect, caught on surveillance video, attacked the clerk and continued to assault the woman after she lost consciousness.

The man went on to take cigarettes and money from the store before getting away.

The suspect is approximately 6′ feet tall and 180 pounds.

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Fayetteville police have arrested another person in connection with a February shooting outside a nightclub on Murchison Road.

Ondra Little, 37, of the 700 block of Maxine Street, was charged Wednesday with attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon. Bail was set at $5,000.

Little is accused of trying to steal money from Roshawn Douglas Elliott.

According to court documents, Elliott, who was 30, was shot Feb. 24 in the chest and pelvis while outside of EJ’s. The nightclub is located at 1911 Murchison Road.

Elliott died March 2.

Little is the third man to be charged in connection with the shooting at EJs.

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CARTHAGE — A Moore County jury decided Wednesday that Mario Lynn Phillips should die for murdering four men in December 2003.

The jury deliberated nearly four-and-a-half hours before sentencing Phillips for the murders of Eddie Lynn Ryals, Carl “C.J.” Justice Jr., Joseph Allen Harden and Daryl Hobson.

They were shot and stabbed to death during a robbery in Ryals’ home in the Carolina Lakes mobile home park in Moore County.

Ryals’ girlfriend, Amanda Cooke Varner, was shot and stabbed but survived.

Renee Yvette McLaughlin and Sean Maurice Ray have been charged with helping Phillips commit the murders and robbery. They are awaiting trial.

As he has throughout the trial, Phillips showed little reaction. He has told the judge he is taking Prozac, an anti-depressant, and Haldol, a drug used to treat psychotic symptoms.

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10/04/07 — MOORE COUNTY) - Investigators with the Moore County Sheriff’s Office have arrested Ryan Jermar White, 18 years old, 332 Deerview Road, Sanford, N.C. White has been charged with felony breaking and entering and first degree murder.

During the investigation information was learned that connected White to the Defendants charged with the murder. The charges were filed after the information was presented to the District Attorney’s Office.

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CARTHAGE — Mario Lynn Phillips said in jail that he is faking mental illness to avoid getting the death sentence for killing four people, Phillips’ former cell mate testified Monday.

Frederick D. Brown Jr. of Greensboro said Phillips made the comment and others in a cell the two shared in May.

According to Brown, Phillips said, “These crackers think that I’m crazy. So I’m just playing it off to get life and not death.”

Phillips admits to the December 2003 murders. According to previous testimony, he led a group of three who robbed and shot and stabbed to death Eddie Ryals, Carl “C.J.’’ Justice Jr., Joseph Allen Harden and Daryl Hobson in Ryals’ mobile home in the Carolina Lakes subdivision. He also admits trying to kill Amanda Cooke Varner during the robbery.

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(09/25/07 — FAYETTEVILLE) - Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputies have arrested four Pine Forest High School students after a fight broke out on the campus Tuesday.

Luis Angel DeJesus, 17, of Spring Lake allegedly spat on a school official after being told multiple times to go to class on Tuesday morning. Sheriff’s deputies say a fight broke out as DeJesus was being escorted to the principal’s office for counseling.

Three of the suspect’s friends, who witnessed the confrontation, began to threaten an assistant school principal. Four additional school officials, who are also coaches at the school, were assaulted while trying to bring the situation under control. Authorities say they were injured and were treated at a nearby medical facility.

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Francisco “Paco” Tirado, one of nine people convicted for Cumberland County’s notorious 1998 gang-initiation killings, had his two death sentences converted to life without parole Thursday.

The sentences were converted because under a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Tirado was too young when he participated in the murders to qualify for the death sentence. He was 17 at the time.

The Supreme Court decided that people must be at least 18 at the time of their crimes to receive the death sentence.

Tirado is now 26.

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CARTHAGE — A Taylortown councilman and his brother who were charged with various felonies this summer now face additional charges.

Lonnie Jones III and his brother, Scott Burch Jones, were charged Tuesday as part of a three-month investigation by the Narcotics Unit with the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, according to a news release.

Three other people also were arrested as part of the investigation.

Lonnie Jones III, 38, of the 100 block of Burch Street, was charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine, selling and delivering cocaine, conspiracy to sell or deliver cocaine and two counts of maintaining a home to keep a controlled substance. He was released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.

Scott Jones, 26, also of the 100 block of Burch Street, was charged with six counts of possession with intent to sell or deliver cocaine, six counts of selling or delivering cocaine and one count of conspiracy to sell or deliver cocaine. His bail was set at $75,000.

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A gang code name for murder was written on the handle of a gun found in a book bag seized from an E.E. Smith High School student last week, lawmen said.

“187 murder man” was written on one side of the 9 mm and “Bloods” — the name of a violent street gang — was written on the other side, said Capt. LaRue Windham of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. “187” is the penal code section for homicide in California.

The student, Hakeem Trion Essa McKoy, 17, of the 2200 block of Nicky Avenue, was charged with bringing a gun on school property and misdemeanor altering or removing a serial number from a gun. He was released to the custody of his aunt on a $5,000 secured bond, according to court documents.

The gun was found when a teacher saw the book bag being passed among several students in the lunchroom Friday, Windham said.

The teacher notified the school resource officer, and the student was taken to the principal’s office.

“The gun wasn’t loaded, the clip didn’t have any rounds in it,” said Principal Clinton Robinson.

Lawmen found a magazine containing live rounds hidden in the crotch of McKoy’s pants, Windham said. They also found a red bandana in the waistband of McKoy’s pants, Windham said. The practice is known among gangs as “hiding the colors,” he said.

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A gang code name for murder was written on the handle of a gun found in a book bag seized from an E.E. Smith High School student last week, lawmen said.

“187 murder man” was written on one side of the 9 mm and “Bloods” — the name of a violent street gang — was written on the other side, said Capt. LaRue Windham of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. “187” is the penal code for homicide in California.

The student’s name was not immediately available.

The gun was found when a teacher saw the book bag being passed among several students in the lunchroom Friday, Windham said.

The teacher notified the school resource officer, and the student was taken to the principal’s office.

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COLUMBUS COUNTY –  The jury in the Ramel Troy trial has found Troy guilty of first-degree murder.

Ramel Troy was charged with first-degree murder for the 2002 death of 19-year-old Chase Powell. Prosecutors say Troy and two other men robbed Powell and beat him up. One of the men shot Powell after he begged for his life. Powell’s body was found three weeks after he disappeared.

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A Fayetteville man accused of kidnapping his girlfriend’s daughter from her school in May has been arrested.

Richard Lee Carmichael, 23, of the 2500 block of Slater Avenue, is charged with first-degree kidnapping and second-degree trespassing. Details of his arrest were immediately available Tuesday night.

On May 10, Carmichael picked up the 6-year-old at Ferguson-Easley Elementary School on Seabrook Road around 2:20 p.m., the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office has said. A short while later, the girl’s mother showed up at the school and learned that her daughter was missing.

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LUMBERTON — A man from New York City wanted by the military for desertion was arrested in Robeson County this week, accused of robbing an automotive supply store at gunpoint.

Lorenzo Lewis James, 21, was being held on $50,000 bond Monday at the Robeson County jail on charges of robbery with a dangerous weapon. James has been absent without leave from the U.S. Navy since November, said Fairmont police Detective Sgt. David Windom.

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REIDSVILLE — A Reidsville father was jailed on a charge he injured a child in a fit of ‘rage’ while administering corporal punishment, the sheriff’s office said in a press release issued today.

Gilberto Pavon Ceron, 39, of 236 Pond Trail, was being held in the Rockingham County jail under a $100,000 bond, according to the sheriff’s office.

Ceron injured the child Wednesday, although the child did not require emergency medical treatment, the sheriff’s office said.

Article here.