Eric Laneil Beale, Armed Robbery, North Carolina 2019

A 2019 armed robbery in Conway, North Carolina, has resulted in a 92-month prison sentence for Eric Laneil Beale, a Murfreesboro man.

On January 10, 2019, at approximately 6:30 p.m., two men, one wearing all black with a black hood and the other wearing bright blue pants and a burgundy hooded sweater, entered the Park N Shop convenience store in Conway, North Carolina, and committed an armed robbery.

According to court documents, the men, who were armed with guns, forced an employee to hand over money from the cash register. The men then fled on foot.

Law enforcement began searching the area and located Beale crouching behind a parked car. He was ordered out of the car and detained.

A pat down uncovered twenty stacked $5 bills in Beale's front pants pocket, and he admitted to being involved in the robbery.

At the police station, Beale confessed to committing the robbery and identified himself as the man who had collected the money. He also directed officers to an abandoned building near a cemetery, where they recovered a .380 caliber Hi-Point handgun, a plastic bag containing the rest of the stolen money, and the blue pants and burgundy sweater that he had worn during the robbery.

The co-defendant, Isaiah Vaughan, was identified based on a distinctive tattoo visible on the surveillance video and has since pleaded guilty to the same charges.

G. Norman Acker, III, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after Beale's sentencing by U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan.

The Conway Police Department and Northampton County Sheriff's Office conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake D. Pugh prosecuted the case.

Beale was sentenced on March 9, 2021, to 92 months in prison for interference with commerce by robbery and brandishing a firearm in connection with that crime.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/murfreesboro-man-sentenced-after-armed-robbery-conway-convenience-store