02/05/06 — Man pleads guilty in armed robberies

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Man pleads guilty in armed robberies

By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on February 5, 2006 2:03 AM

A 20-year-old Goldsboro man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for his part in several armed robberies last year in Goldsboro.

Marcus Demetrius Benton of Courtyard Circle pleaded guilty to two armed robberies and was sentenced in Wayne County Superior Court to 61 to 83 months.

Benton was ordered by Judge W. Allen Cobb of Wilmington to receive substance abuse and psychological treatment and pay restitution and $520 to his court-appointed lawyer.

Benton had been charged with a third armed robbery and two felony second-degree kidnappings.

Benton was accused of stealing $74.33 worth of pizzas and $50 from delivery man Murle Hinton Jr. on May 15; stealing $223 worth of cigarettes and $220 from Heather Thigpen, a clerk at the Savemore service station on East Ash Street, on May 16; stealing more than $1 worth of property from Rita Hines on May 18, and kidnapping two other people during the holdup of Ms. Hines.

A second defendant, Shawnquel Camorra Futrell, 18, of Ball Street, has not been tried. He was charged with conspiracy in the May 15 robbery and armed robbery in the May 16 holdup.

Benton and Futrell were arrested in May after an investigation by police into six robbery cases of people or convenience stores between April 17 and May 25.