NLR man gets 20 years for '12 robbery

A 20-year-old North Little Rock man accepted a 20-year prison sentence Thursday for participating in a robbery of four people at the Little Rock River Market.

Dion Dashone Robinson pleaded guilty to four counts each of aggravated robbery and theft in exchange for the sentence, said deputy prosecutor Hugh Finkelstein.

Robinson will have to serve 14 years before he can qualify for parole. The charges carry a potential life sentence. He was scheduled to stand trial next Wednesday. Robinson has been convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession in North Little Rock during the 20 months he was awaiting trial, court records show.

Robinson was arrested in October 2012 in the 100 block of East Markham Street after being tackled in an alley by a Stephens security guard as Robinson was being chased by one of the victims, Alexandria Davis, according to police reports.

Davis, Jeremy Mitchell, Grace Townsend and Gary Curtis had been robbed by a gunman with three accomplices while getting into a car behind LaHarpe's Office Furniture on President Clinton Avenue, police said. The robbers fled with the victims' wallets and cellphones, with Davis chasing down Robinson and another man.

One of the fleeing men fired a shot during the chase, which attracted police, who joined the chase. Robinson had two of the victims' wallets and a small amount of marijuana, and a loaded .40-caliber pistol was found next to him, police said. The other robbers were never caught.

Ahead of Robinson's trial, supporters had written letters to the court attesting to his good character and describing the robbery as an aberration they said they believed would never be repeated.

The writers were his cousin, Rosalind Davis; grandmother, Sandra Spencer; great uncle, Victor Greene Sr.; family friend Gwen Terrell; and Bishop D. Anthony Robinson of Changed Life International Ministries of North Little Rock.

"I say this in all sincerity when I say that this isolated situation was a case of Dion simply having a lapse in judgment due to his surrounding," Robinson wrote. "I and other leaders within the community and our local ministry have committed ourselves to ensuring that Dion continue to be a positive contribution to this community."

Metro on 06/08/2014

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