A 17-year-old from Palestine, Texas, has been charged with attempted capital murder by Miller County, Ark., prosecutors.
Chavel Terrel Jemison is considered a juvenile under Arkansas law but has been certified to stand trial as an adult, court records show. Jemison and co-defendant LaTerrance Shaquan Traylor, 19, allegedly held a clerk at Circle K convenience store at gunpoint Jan. 9, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account.
The clerk told investigators he was "rushed" by two men wearing masks who forced him to one of the store's two cash registers. The assailant holding a pistol, identified later as Jemison, held a gun to the clerk's head while the other held a black leather tote bag into which he ordered the clerk to empty the contents of one of the registers.
When the clerk told the men he didn't have a password to open the second register, the armed man allegedly struck him in the back of his head with the gun. The clerk got down on the floor as the unarmed suspect told the gun-wielding one to shoot the clerk, "at which time the armed suspect attempted to chamber a round."
The clerk reported that "once the suspect had chambered a round, he decided he would attempt to disarm the suspect in order to survive."
The clerk jumped up and punched the man, allegedly Jemison, with the pistol in the face, grabbed the gun and wrestled it away from his attacker. The unarmed man, allegedly Jemison, had already fled the store and the recently disarmed one, allegedly Traylor, followed.
The pistol whipping the clerk received from the armed robber may have saved his life. When Texarkana, Ark., Det. Shane Kirkland examined the gun at the Circle K, he noticed that the base plate from the pistol's magazine was missing. The missing plate, found in the cash register area, caused the gun to malfunction because of a lack of spring pressure to push live rounds into the chamber.
The magazine was loaded with several .380 caliber rounds of full metal jacketed bullets.
"I believe that the armed suspect had intended on loading the weapon and shooting (the clerk) but was unable to make the weapon functional," the affidavit states.
The gun provided investigators with a valuable clue. The pistol's serial number led detectives to First Cash Pawn in Palestine, Texas. The man who bought the gun told detectives he had sold the gun in mid-December to Jemison through a go-between via Facebook for $115. The go-between told investigators he had facilitated the gun sale to Jemison and claimed that Jemison had asked him if he wanted to "hit a lick," a slang phrase for committing a crime, during the first week of January but that the go-between had declined.
Texarkana, Ark., Detective Shane Kirkland recognized the suspects on video surveillance footage from the Circle K as the same men who entered the 71 Express convenience store on State Line Avenue just minutes before the Circle K robbery. The 71 Express clerk told detectives she was sitting in a car having a quick visit with a friend when she saw two men wearing bandanas on their faces enter the store and roam around before grabbing the clerk's wallet from the counter and running out.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Sams signed off on formal charges of attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery against Jemison this month in connection with the Circle K holdup. Jemison is facing a charge of commercial burglary in connection with the theft of the clerk's wallet from 71 Express.
Jemison faces life without parole if convicted of attempted capital murder. Aggravated robbery is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in an Arkansas prison. Commercial burglary is punishable by a fine up to $10,000 and three to 10 years in prison.
Traylor was arrested for aggravated robbery Feb. 8 and made an initial court appearance Feb. 13 before Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson. Formal charges have not yet been filed in his case. Johnson set Traylor's bail at $150,000 and Traylor remains in the Miller County jail. Both men are scheduled to make court appearances later this month.