Sawyer deemed fit to stand trial for bank robbery

FAYETTEVILLE -- A teen charged as an adult in a bank robbery is fit to stand trial, according to a mental evaluation.

Britavious Devond Sawyer, 17, of Springdale is charged as an accomplice to aggravated robbery. Police say Sawyer was a lookout when the Arvest Bank at 1113 Garland Ave. was robbed about 3 p.m. Jan. 3, 2017.

Legal lingo

Competency evaluation

An assessment of the ability of a defendant to understand and rationally participate in a court process. Competency concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Competence to proceed is defined as the defendant’s ability to consult rationally with an attorney to aid in his own defense and to have a rational and factual understanding of the charges.

Source: Staff report

Sawyer has been trying to get his case transferred to juvenile court because he was 16 when he was arrested. Circuit Judge Joanna Taylor ordered examinations for mental culpability and fitness to proceed.

Doctors at Ozark Guidance found Sawyer suffers from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder but they don't rise to the level of mental disease or defect. Doctors said Sawyer had the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his alleged actions and could conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.

Police say a co-defendant identified Sawyer as a participant in the robbery. When he was arrested, Sawyer had a large amount of cash in the trunk of a car he bought after the robbery.

Sawyer told doctors he wasn't involved in the robbery and didn't know the other men were going to rob the bank.

Two other men have pleaded guilty to roles in robbing the bank, and another is awaiting trial.

Telvondric Haywood, 21, pleaded guilty in March to aggravated robbery in Washington County Circuit Court. Haywood also pleaded guilty to a list of other felonies, including two counts of probation revocations for breaking and entering and failure to appear as well as a separate count of failure to appear and a count of impairing the operation of a vital public facility, the Washington County jail.

Taylor sentenced Haywood to 30 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with 15 years suspended on the robbery charge and lesser terms on the remaining charges. All will run concurrently with the robbery charge. He was given credit for 423 days jail time served.

An accomplice, Quamirrio D. Edwards, 20, of Springdale pleaded guilty to accomplice to aggravated robbery last year and was sentenced to 20 years with 10 years suspended.

Lentonio Jenner, 26, of Rogers has a court date set for Oct. 16. He's charged with aggravated robbery. Jenner also faces other charges, including aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, battery and terroristic threatening stemming from an earlier, unrelated home invasion and robbery incident.

Police say Jenner and Haywood entered the bank, brandished guns and demanded money, then fled with $13,615.

Sawyer acted as a lookout and Edwards was the getaway driver, police said. No shots were fired, and no one was hurt. Haywood and Sawyer were arrested after admitting to the robbery, according to police.

Haywood told Taylor the gun he carried was a BB gun that looked like a real firearm.

Jenner was arrested by the Escambia County Sheriff's Office while he vacationed in northwest Florida and was returned to Arkansas to face charges.

NW News on 10/03/2018

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