Four Wiregrass residents charged in Georgia armed robbery

Four Barbour County residents remain held behind bars after Georgia authorities charged them over the weekend with using a gun and baseball bat to rob four men from Dothan and Florida.

Chief Deputy Eddie Ingram, of the Quitman County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, said investigators have charged Dariss Rumph, 20, and James Rico Goodwin, 24, both of Clayton, and David Gamble, 25, and Lishonda Hawkins, 29, both of Eufaula, each with armed robbery and hijacking a motor vehicle. Ingram said Rumph also faces a felony charge of aggravated assault after striking a Dothan man on the back with a baseball bat. The man was treated and released from Southeast Alabama Medical Center for his injuries.

“The victims in this case were lured to an isolated area south of Georgetown and were forced out of their vehicle at gunpoint and robbed of cash, a cell-phone and their vehicle,” Ingram said.

Ingram said the robbery was not random, and that the four suspects planned the crime under the rouse that they were taking the four victims to a party Saturday evening. Ingram said one of the suspects apparently knew one of the victims and spoke with him in a Eufaula parking lot about taking them to a party. He said instead of taking them to a party, the suspects led the four victims to a country dirt road and robbed them after forcing them from their vehicle at gunpoint.

According to a statement from Ingram, Eufaula police arrested the four assailants during a traffic stop late Saturday night on Alabama State Road 82 in Eufaula.

Three of the people were held in the Miller County Jail in Georgia without bond after they waived extradition from Alabama. Ingram said Goodwin remained held at the Eufaula City Jail on Monday because he was wanted in Alabama on other, unrelated charges.