Two plead guilty in January Best Bet robbery

Two of the three Baltimore men accused of robbing the Best Bet Mini Mart at gunpoint in January have pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery and abduction in Amherst County Circuit Court.

Everett White Jr. pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of robbery, five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, one count of attempted robbery, one count of abduction and one count of wearing a mask in public. His codefendant, Clarence Jerome Turner Jr., pleaded guilty to the same charges Friday morning.

The third defendant, Brandon Stanley, is scheduled to appear in court sometime next week.

Judge J. Michael Gamble said the maximum possible penalty for these men is up to life in prison on the robbery charges, up to three years for the firearms charges, up to 10 years on the attempted robbery charge and up to 10 years on the abduction charge.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox said “outstanding” work by Amherst and Nelson sheriff’s deputies resulted in the arrest of White, Turner and Stanley less than an hour after the robbery was committed.

“Turner confessed to Investigator (Duval) Doss,” Maddox said. “He admitted that it was his shotgun, and that he busted the cash register.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Anthony Martin said three men wearing masks and hoodies entered the store with weapons and told everyone to get into the back room on the morning of Jan. 10.

The men asked Sayta Narayan, the store’s owner, about the location of the safe, Martin said. He told them it was in the back room but was on a timer that alerted police if it was opened before 9 a.m., he said.

The men forced Narayan and several people in the store to the floor in the café and told them to hand over their wallets and money, Martin said.

One customer came into the store to redeem an $80 winning lottery ticket and to buy another, Martin said. The men took his winnings. One also broke open the cash register and stole that money.

An Amherst County High School student stopped in the store to buy a soda before school, Maddox said. When he walked in the door, he saw people on the floor and three men leaving the store. One stopped and demanded his wallet, but the student did not have it with him.

A witness noticed a suspicious white car parked near her house the night before and wrote down the license plate, Maddox said. When Investigator E.W. Bier used a canine to track the direction that the suspects left in, the woman gave him the plate number. Just 30 minutes after the robbery, that car was located in Nelson County where Deputy Scott Folsome stopped the vehicle and arrested the three men.

While in jail, Martin said Turner told his cellmate that they intended to rob the convenience store the night before but there were too many people.

“The initial plan was to go down and rob drug dealers but that didn’t work,” Martin said.