A Garland County Circuit Court jury took about 30 minutes Friday to convict a local man of two armed robberies in 2016, both involving fast food restaurants, after a three-day trial.
The eight-woman, four-man jury then deliberated for about 35 minutes before recommending Jeremy Andrew Avery, 34, be sentenced to 25 years on each of two counts of aggravated robbery, to be run consecutively, for a total of 50 years in prison. He will have to serve 70 percent, or about 35 years, before he is eligible for parole.
Avery was arrested March 29, 2016, in connection with the March 13, 2016, robbery of Subway restaurant, 3790 Park Ave., and the March 26, 2016, robbery of Sonic, 112 Westwego, off Airport Road, and had remained in custody since his arrest. Avery is classified as a habitual offender with two prior felony convictions in 2014 for theft by receiving of a firearm and manufacturing a controlled substance, marijuana.
In their closing arguments, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Joe Graham and Deputy Prosecutor Kara Petro both stressed that Avery would be guilty of aggravated robbery under the law in each case even if he was only an accomplice, but both noted they felt he was the one who committed the robberies and likely acted alone.
In a surprising twist, a twice-convicted rapist, James Eugene Sharp, 34, was brought back from prison Thursday to testify on Avery's behalf and claimed he had committed both robberies. Sharp was sentenced to life in prison on June 21, 2017, after a one-day trial for the 2013 rape of a 46-year-old local woman and sentenced to an additional 40 years in prison after pleading guilty Aug. 14, 2017, to the 2016 rape of a 12-year-old girl.
Graham noted Sharp and Avery had "bonded" while housed together in the jail in the past. He said Sharp "is never getting out of prison" and "had nothing to lose by coming up in here and telling you he did this. There are no consequences for him. You think a perjury case would bother him on top of a life sentence? No."
He said Sharp had no credibility and "there is nothing to tie him to either robbery other than the BS testimony he gave in court."
Petro had cross-examined Sharp during his testimony and he denied having met with Avery and his attorney, Josh Hurst, before the trial, but she produced video showing the three of them meeting in a room and going over documents.
Petro noted Avery has claimed he was scared of Sharp, who had threatened his family, but when Sharp and Avery greet each other in the video they hugged "for an awkwardly long time" and then Sharp kissed Avery on the cheek. "He certainly didn't look scared of him when they were bear hugging," she said.
Graham noted in Avery's initial statement to Garland County sheriff's investigators regarding the robberies he had admitted to getting paid $100 to "drive the getaway car" and mentioned picking "a guy" up on Park and on Airport, the two locations where the robberies had occurred, without being given that information.
Graham said by his own admission that would make Avery an accomplice to the robbery and just as guilty and he never said anything about being coerced or threatened into participating. Graham noted Avery initially blamed the robbery on a friend of his, then said it was the Mexican mafia, then claimed his friend was involved with a drug cartel.
According to the affidavit of the Subway robbery, a dark-colored Cadillac CTS pulled up to the front of the restaurant and a white male came in wearing a blue hoodie with a white "Bass Pro Shops" logo with a camouflage face covering and armed with a black semi-automatic pistol which he pointed at the employee working and demanded money.
"Sorry, I can't find a job and I got kids. Give me all the money," the suspect told the employee who gave him about $400 from the register. The suspect put $15 into the tip jar and said, "Spend that on whatever, thank you."
Graham reminded the jury of previous testimony that a black Cadillac CTS was parked at Avery's residence, a hoodie and camouflage face covering matching the one worn by the robber were found in his bedroom and a 9-mm semi-automatic pistol that matched the one seen in the video at Subway was found in the Cadillac.
He also noted a phone call made to Sonic near closing time placing a large food order shortly before the restaurant was robbed was later traced back to Avery. "That's what put (the investigators) on Avery in the first place," he said.
"The evidence in the case is overwhelming and shows (Avery) committed the robberies."
In his closing, Hurst told the jury they needed to be convinced of Avery's guilt "beyond" a reasonable doubt "not up to or right before" and must believe "no other logical explanation" could be derived from the evidence.
He noted none of the victims or witnesses could positively identify the person who committed the robberies which "leaves the million dollar question. Who came in?" He said there was testimony about a possible fingerprint being left on a door handle at Subway, but investigators never sent it off to the state crime lab for identification.
"That could have told us if it was Jeremy Avery or someone else," Hurst said. "We're talking about a man's life here. That's a little important."
In her response, Petro said the partial fingerprint was deemed not usable and the fact it was found at a busy restaurant "wouldn't prove anything considering everyone going in and out of the place."
Noting the multiple exhibits prosecutors presented, "like 78 pieces of evidence," Hurst told the jury "this is not a numbers game. It's not about who can pile the table up with more stuff. Don't get lost in that."
He acknowledged Avery's statement to investigators was "all over the place" but noted he was "passed out asleep" when they first came in to talk to him and had to be waked up right before he was questioned.
Hurst also questioned evidence about text messages Avery had sent complaining about needing money just prior to the robberies. "Most people in America don't have much money. They need money. That doesn't mean they're robbing people."
He also acknowledged previous testimony that Avery was a drug dealer and argued many of the text conversations about money involved the sale of drugs and weren't about a robbery.
"I'm not telling you (Avery) is a saint. He's not a good guy. He used drugs, he sold drugs," Hurst said.
"You may not like (Avery) but you can't convict him for that. You can't convict him of aggravated robbery because he was dealing drugs. Don't make a mistake and convict a man of doing something he didn't do because you don't like him."
Local on 04/14/2018