FAYETTEVILLE -- Two California men whose failed attempt to rob a Springdale pawn shop last year ended in a shootout with the owners pleaded guilty to attempted murder and accomplice to aggravated robbery in Washington County Circuit Court on Thursday.
Leon Roberson, 20, Long Beach, Calif., and Marcus Gould, 25, of Compton, Calif., tried to rob the C&S Gun and Pawn Shop, 1208 S. Thompson St., on Dec. 6.
The two men went into the pawn shop about 8:55 a.m. and moments later the two pulled out semi-automatic handguns. The armed robbery went south when the owners pulled their own guns and a shootout began. Police said the suspects shot at employees and the employees shot back. Gould was hit in the arm.
The two ran from the store empty-handed shortly after Gould was shot, according to police.
Both Roberson and Gould, who are half-brothers, were sentenced to 80 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with 43 years suspended, leaving 37 years to serve. Both faced 10 to 40 years or life.
Brian Lamb, deputy prosecutor, said one of the owners, a 74-year-old woman, was slightly injured when Gould shot at her. The bullet hit a coin collection on the counter and the woman was hit by shrapnel.
"There's no doubt he turned and fired at her with the intent to kill her," Lamb said. "In fact, the coin collection may have saved her life."
Video of the robbery showed Roberson tried to shoot as well but his gun appeared to have jammed, Lamb said.
The two men were in the area to visit relatives and had been here about a day when the attempted robbery happened, Lamb said.
"It was not random," Lamb said. "They didn't just get off a bus to rob a pawn shop in Springdale."
The men were arrested at Sparks Hospital in Fort Smith after the attempted hold-up. Roberson had dropped Gould off there for treatment of a gunshot wound to his left forearm and then returned shortly after to check on him. Hospital procedure is to call police when they have anyone come in with a gunshot wound.
Fort Smith Police spoke with Gould and then called Springdale police, who had sent an alert to police agencies statewide to be on the lookout for the robbers.
NW News on 08/14/2015