A Little Rock man's guilty plea Tuesday has canceled an April jury trial focusing on a reported robbery ring responsible for holdups of at least 20 central Arkansas businesses between mid-2012 and early 2013.
Christopher Earnest Bell, 39, was the last of six men accused of being part of the ring to plead guilty. He had been scheduled for a jury trial beginning April 11 in the federal courthouse in Little Rock.
Bell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, the main charge in a 27-count indictment handed up June 5, 2013, in an unusual effort to link under a federal umbrella a series of individual robberies in Little Rock, Benton, Bryant, Sherwood, Lonoke and Carlisle.
The businesses that were robbed at gunpoint during an eight-month span included Wendy's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Little Caesar's, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, McDonald's, Taco Bueno, Andy's Restaurant, Shell Super Stop, Citgo, Dollar General, Mabelvale Automotive and Bestway Rent-to-Own.
Although the indictment blamed 20 robberies on the six men, who were accused of acting in groups of twos or threes, authorities said the ring was suspected in as many as 36 armed robberies. They also said the robberies tied to the group accounted for about 7 percent of all armed robberies in the Little Rock metropolitan area between June 2012 and February 2013.
Bell first tried to plead guilty to the conspiracy charge March 3, but U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes refused to accept the plea after Bell said he didn't know ahead of time that any of the robberies were going to occur. His trial was then delayed from March 7 until April 11.
Holmes accepted Bell's plea Tuesday, and in exchange he dropped nine individual charges Bell faced of interference with commerce by robbery.
When Bell is sentenced at a later date, after a pretrial investigation is conducted and a recommended penalty range is calculated, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He also is expected to be ordered to join in a restitution payment of $31,353.06 that applies to all the defendants.
The other defendants in the case are Mike Waller, 47, who is serving 12 years; Antwann Sockwell, who is serving eight years; Tony Bernard Smith, serving 15 years; Justin Prince Pettis, serving eight years; and Daniel Caple, serving 30 years.
The lengthy sentence in Caple's case stems from federal mandatory minimum sentences that apply when a gun is used during a crime. A gun was discharged in the two robberies to which Caple admitted participating -- one accidentally and one intentionally.
Caple is from Amity in Clark County, while the other defendants are all from Little Rock.
Metro on 03/30/2016