A Little Rock man who robbed another man at knife point in 2016 at the Hot Springs Convention Center was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday after pleading no contest in Garland County Circuit Court.
Jacquinelin Gerald Jones, 23, who has remained in custody since his arrest on other charges June 4, 2016, was set to stand trial Monday on a felony charge of aggravated robbery, punishable by up to life in prison, but pleaded no contest that morning to a reduced charge of robbery with his prison sentence to run concurrently with a sentence he was already serving.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on June 2, 2016, shortly before 3 p.m., Hot Springs police, including Detective Scott Lampinen, responded to a robbery that had just occurred on the main concourse area of the convention center at 134 Convention Blvd.
The victim stated that just a few minutes earlier he was in the arena area of the center walking toward the east side of the building when he passed a black male, later identified as Jones, walking the other direction. As soon as they passed each other, Jones brandished a knife, grabbed the victim from behind, put his arm around his neck and held the knife up to his throat.
Jones demanded the victim's money and a struggle ensued. Jones was able to get the man's wallet out of his back pocket and fled on foot through the arena entrance at Laurel and Convention. The victim sustained a small cut to his right forearm during the incident. It was noted the victim's wallet contained $500 and various credit and debit cards.
An employee of the convention center witnessed the incident and she and the victim both provided police with a description of the suspect and the clothing he wore.
On June 3, Lampinen began canvassing the area for surveillance video and obtained footage from the Corner Bar, located directly across the street at Civic and Convention, showing Jones, who fit the description of the robber, walking east from the downtown area toward Laurel and Convention.
Backtracking from that video, Lampinen found footage from the city's camera system downtown showing Jones walking south along Central Avenue from the area of Park and Whittington avenues. He walked south through Hill Wheatley Plaza at Park and Reserve Street and turned east toward Spring Street headed to the convention center.
Backtracking further, Lampinen found footage of Jones on the cameras at the Arkansas Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo, 847 Whittington Ave., walking toward downtown that clearly showed Jones' face.
On June 4, Jones was arrested after attempting to rob the Exxon, 1200 Central Ave., falsely claiming to have a gun. He was scared away by other customers entering the store and was located by police a short time later on Hawthorn Street and taken into custody.
On Jan. 10, 2017, Jones pleaded guilty in circuit court to robbery in connection with the incident at Exxon and sentenced to 15 years in prison. On April 27, 2017, Jones was formally charged with aggravated robbery in connection with the incident at the convention center.
Local on 08/22/2018