Teen found not guilty in armed beer robbery

A Houston County jury found a Dothan teenager not guilty Thursday of stealing a 12-pack of beer from a man at gunpoint.

Dothan police detectives charged two cousins, Randall Thomas, 17, and Mandrell Baxter, 17, both of Hamilton Street, with the armed robbery of a 42-year-old man outside a convenience store on Columbia Highway earlier this year. Both teenagers were arrested after the victim apparently said he recognized one of them from living in the neighborhood.

Shaun McGhee, the attorney who represented Thomas, said the jury deliberated about an hour before finding his client not guilty. McGhee called the charge against his client a case of mistaken identity. McGhee said his client testified in his own defense that he was at home at the time of the robbery.

Thomas had been held in the Houston County Jail on a $60,000 bond since his arrest. If convicted of the class A felony, first-degree robbery, Thomas faced 20 to 99 years or life in prison. The robbery charge against Baxter remains pending.

“It just was not my client,” McGhee said. “I think it’s a shame a young man had to sit in jail for 10 months when people contacted police about who the real perpetrators were.”

In an unrelated case earlier this week, a jury found Devane Hillard guilty of armed robbery. Dothan police arrested Hillard in July 2008, and charged him with first-degree robbery. Hillard, 20, of Linden Street, was one of four people charged with an armed robbery in the Dixie community that left 34-year-old Marzine McMillian with a gunshot wound.

Assistant District Attorney Banks Smith said Circuit Court Judge Ed Jackson sentenced Hillard to serve 30 years in prison.

“They were going to sell him some fake dope, and the fake dope didn’t turn out good so they opted to rob him,” Smith said.

Jermaine Tillman was already convicted for his part, and is serving a life sentence in prison. Three others also have pending charges, including Jonathan Andrews, Danny Shackleford and Archawacha Harris.