LIMA — The second of four young Indiana residents who took part in the armed robbery of the Walgreens store at the intersection of Allentown and Cable roads earlier this year pleaded guilty Friday to his role in that incident and was immediately sentenced to three years in prison.
Treyvon Manning, 19, of Indianapolis, was one of four Hoosiers — three teen males and a 26-year-old female — charged with aggravated robbery with firearm specifications for participating in the robbery that occurred in the early-morning hours of April 26.
Manning appeared in Allen County Common Pleas Court last month for sentencing but surprised the court by announcing his desire to withdraw an earlier plea of guilty. Manning said his request was based on new evidence that has been discovered in a case against him in Shelby County.
The Indianapolis teenager was back in court Friday for a scheduled hearing to formally withdraw that guilty plea, but court-appointed public defender Joseph Benavidez told Judge David Cheney that Manning was prepared to leave his guilty plea intact and wished to proceed to sentencing.
Falling back on a previously negotiated agreement with prosecutors, Manning agreed to enter a guilty plea to a second-degree felony charge of robbery that included a one-year firearm specification. Prosecutors, as part of that plea deal, agreed to recommend a sentence of two years in prison on the robbery charge to run consecutively with the mandatory one-year sentence for the firearm specification.
“The state believes that sentence is appropriate, given the defendant’s youthful age and that fact that he was an accomplice, but not a principal offender,” in the Walgreens robbery, Assistant Prosecutor Jana Emerick said.
Cheney abided by the negotiated plea deal and sentenced Manning to a total of three years in prison.
The four Indiana residents were stopped by law enforcement authorities in Shelby County after leaving Allen County after the Walgreens robbery.
Seneca Rivers, 18, of Indianapolis, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a reduced charge of aggravated burglary in connection with the Walgreens robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison, with a mandatory additional three-year sentence for carrying a gun during the execution of the crime.
Prosecutors had alleged that Rivers jumped over a counter in the pharmacy area of the store, pointed a gun at the pharmacist on duty and demanded he remove oxycodone from the safe. Emerick said oxycodone pills with a street value of $18,000 were given to the defendant before all four fled from the store.
Quintez Hawkins, 19, is scheduled to stand trial beginning Dec. 18. Abigail Lee, 26, will appear at a change of plea hearing that has been scheduled for Nov. 30.
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