Enterprise man gets 25 years for robbery of Dothan law office

An Enterprise man received a 25-year sentence Monday and became the last of three people sentenced for their involvement in an armed robbery of a Dothan law office.

Circuit Court Judge Lawson Little sentenced Jay Gatewood, 22, to serve 25 years behind bars for the first-degree conviction, along with an additional three years for an unrelated child abuse conviction.

Gatewood previously pleaded guilty to an armed robbery at the law office of Richard Ramsey IV. He was arrested on April 11, 2006, about eight days after the robbery. Ramsey was not at the office during the robbery, but Gatewood was charged with stealing from the secretary at the office, Assistant District Attorney Gary Maxwell said.

“They sent the female in, and she asked a question just to see if anybody else was in there,” Maxwell said. “I believe they both entered with guns, and the two guys go in and demanded money.”

Judges previously sentenced two other people in the robbery, including Timothy Earl Bess, 23, and Antionette Shantal Hamilton, who Maxwell called the get-away driver. She pleaded guilty to felony second-degree robbe, and was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison.

Bess, of South Ussery Street, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in December 2006 and was sentenced to serve 99 years in prison.

Little also sentenced Gatewood to serve three years in prison for a felony child abuse conviction. He was arrested on March 27, 2006, after police alleged he broke his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter’s arm.