
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990                   TAG: 9004250602
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN GUILTY OF HITTING CLERK, ROBBING STORE

A 31-year-old Roanoke man pleaded guilty Tuesday in Roanoke County Circuit Court to hitting a convenience-store clerk over the head and leaving her bleeding on the floor during a Feb. 3 robbery.

Carol Jarrell, 49-year-old clerk at the Hop-In store on Peters Creek Road, had testified at a preliminary hearing last month and identified Larry Dotson of Ordway Drive as one of two robbers.

Jarrell also identified Virginia R. Langhorne, 21, of 35th Street Northwest. Langhorne has a jury trial set May 8.

Jarrell testified that she was working alone in the store across from the Department of Motor Vehicles office about 2 a.m. when a man entered the store and bought a pack of cigarettes.

She said she watched the man leave the store and get in a car, but the car did not leave the parking lot. Instead, a woman got out of the car and entered the store.

As she was waiting on the woman, the man re-entered the store. Then she felt something hit her in the back of the head.

The couple grabbed less than $50 and ran from the store.

Deputy Dave Flynn of the Roanoke County Sheriff's Department testified that he stopped a speeding car minutes after the dispatcher put out the robbery call.

by CNB