Father, Daughter Plead Guilty

DORSETTS ADMIT ROLES IN STAGED CONVENIENCE STORE ROBBERY

— A father and daughter have admitted their roles in a staged robbery from a convenience store.

James Dorsett, 42, of Springdale pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to theft of property and failure to appear. He also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.

The plea was under an agreement public defender Scott McElveen reached with deputy prosecutor Stephanie McLemore.

Dorsett’s daughter, Alycha, pleaded guilty Monday to theft of property for her role in the crime.

According to court documents, James Dorsett, who was the manager at the Fastrip Gas Station at 3209 N.E. 11th St. in Bentonville, reported an armed robbery at the business at 1:49 p.m. Nov. 2, 2010.

Dorsett told police dispatch a black man, armed with a handgun, robbed the business and fled in a car, according to court documents. The supposed robber took $3,108, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Dorsett told police he was outside the store with money deposit bags when the money was stolen. He told dispatchers the man left in a cream-colored Ford Taurus, according to the affidavit.

Police reviewed the surveillance tapes and learned the robbery took 18 seconds. Dorsett could be heard on the surveillance tape telling a clerk about the robbery, and the car involved was a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Two days after the robbery, Troy Curby, a Rogers police detective, informed Bentonville police he saw a Monte Carlo on Interstate 540, and the female driver was counting money, according to court documents. Curby got the license number. The vehicle belonged to Alycha Dorsett, according to the affidavit.

Police obtained James Dorsett’s phone records, which showed he traveled to Fort Smith where his daughter lives.

Phone records also show Dorsett talked to his daughter for about 19 seconds shortly before the robbery, according to court documents.

Police also obtained Alycha Dorsett’s phone records, which showed she and her father’s cellphones were using the same cell tower shortly before the robbery, the affidavit states. Her phone records also show she was driving on Interstate 540 after the robbery, according to court documents.

Circuit Judge Robin Green accepted the plea agreement and James Dorsett’s guilty plea.

James Dorsett was placed on state supervised probation with Act 346 and was ordered to serve 180 days in the Benton County Jail.

Green described the sentence as lenient and only accepted the agreement after McLemore told her Bentonville police investigators were present in the courtroom and did not object to the plea. The deputy prosecutor also told Green that Dorsett’s 180 day jail sentence is equivalent to a five or six year prison sentence. James Dorsett also was ordered to pay $1,870 in court costs.

Alycha Dorsett, 25, was placed on three years state-supervised probation with Act 346, and was ordered to serve 42 days in the Benton County Jail.

The father and daughter were both ordered to repay the $3,108.

Green told James Dorsett his actions could have had dire consequences on an innocent person if police had found someone matching the description of the supposed robber.

“You totally set those wheels into motion,” Green said.

Upcoming Events