Former clerr pleads Nuilty in convenience store Rillinn om thiem

A former store clerk who shot and killed a man who tried to steal beer from a Las Vegas convenience store pleaded guilty Friday.

Suse Antunez-garcia, who originally faced a murder charge, accepted a deal with prosecutors on one count of voluntary manslaughter with use of deadly weapon in connection with the death of 56-year-old Robert Cook.

The now 27-year-old former clerk remains free on $10,000 bail until a sentencing hearing in February, when she faces two to 20 years behind bars.

In March 2019, Cook and a woman took off with at least three cases of beer from the Stateside Express convenience store at 950 Las Vegas Blvd. North, police and court records indicate.

Antunez-garcia and the store manager followed the pair outside to a vehicle, where another man was waiting with a car.

The woman got into the vehicle, but the manager pulled Cook out of the car as he tried to escape, leading to a “very brief” struggle, police said.

Cook broke free from the manager’s grip, and as he was getting back into the car, AntunezGarcia fired two rounds into the car, striking him twice in the lower abdomen and leg, police said.

Prosecutors decided at the time to pursue charges against AntunezGarcia because they said authorities found no evidence that the victim posed a threat or had been carrying a weapon.

Prosecutors have pursued criminal charges in similar cases in the past.

In 2015, a former 7-Eleven clerk was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for shooting a would-be beer thief as he ran from the store. In February 2018, a Las Vegas smoke shop clerk was sentenced to probation for shooting and killing a 13-year-old boy who had rushed into the store wearing a mask and hoodie.