30-year term as good as it gets, judge tells angry robber

Two of six men accused of working as a robbery ring to carry out armed holdups of at least 20 central Arkansas businesses in 2012 and 2013 were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms of eight years and 30 years.

The number of armed robberies carried out at fast-food restaurants, gas stations, auto-part stores and rental businesses over the course of several months was so alarming to law enforcement leaders that they sought help from the FBI, which coordinated the agencies’ investigations and offered federal resources that resulted in the six men being jointly indicted on federal conspiracy charges that carry steep sentences.

The severity of the federal charges — which, unlike state charges, don’t carry a possibility of parole — hit home Wednesday when even a judge sympathetic to the defendants’ youthfulness, unstable childhoods and psychological problems couldn’t save them from mandatory lengthy sentences.

“I’m giving you the best sentence that I possibly can under the circumstances,”

U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes told Daniel Caple, 23, of Amity in Clark County, after explaining in detail — in response to angry letters Caple sent to the court — the reasons behind the mandatory minimum sentence of 360 months, or 30 years.

Caple pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to two counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence and a single count of assaulting a government officer on May 27, 2014, while detained in Seattle to undergo a mental examination in the robbery case.

In letters he later sent to the court, Caple asked to withdraw his guilty plea and demanded a new attorney. But Holmes told Caple on Wednesday that even if he could withdraw his plea — which wasn’t possible under federal rules — prosecutors could then seek a new indictment on a more serious charge of discharging a gun that was initially overlooked.

In addition, had Caple gone to trial on all of his original charges, some of which were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea, Holmes said convictions with longer mandatory minimum sentences were near certain because Caple has admitted to the charges on the record.

Holmes also told Caple that his letters showed he has a coherent thought process, underscoring the findings of the mental evaluation — that Caple wasn’t suffering from mental illness when he committed the crimes, and that he was mentally competent to go to trial — and preventing him from claiming insanity, despite his past diagnoses of being bipolar and schizophrenic.

The judge’s explanation came after Caple’s complaint that, “I feel like I was bullied into taking this plea. … I would like to know every available option, because I feel like you all are taking away my life.”

A mandatory minimum sentence of five years for possessing a gun during a crime and a consecutive 25-year minimum sentence for a second offense involving a gun left Caple with little options, Holmes said. He said that if prosecutors had charged Caple with discharging a gun during the robberies, he would have faced at least 35 years behind bars. After Holmes’ explanation, Caple said he didn’t want to withdraw his plea.

In both robberies that Caple admitted carrying out — one on Jan. 4, 2013, at Mabelvale Automotive in Little Rock and a second Jan. 10, 2013, at a Shell Super Stop in Benton — guns were fired. In the first case, a bystander pushed Caple’s gun to the floor, causing it to discharge. In the second, Caple admitted firing a gun into the floor before hopping the counter and snatching $200.

Defense attorney Joseph Robert Perry of Marianna told the judge that Caple was 20 years old and essentially homeless at the time of the robberies, after a childhood without nurturing as a result of his parents’ regular use of alcohol and methamphetamine. Perry said Caple was diagnosed as bipolar at age five, and a diagnosis of psychosis was added by the time he was 15.

He said Caple, a loner, was “trying to find some sort of acceptance” by joining the robbery ring, and was “used as a pawn” by the other robbers.

Earlier in the day, Holmes sentenced Justin Prince Pettis, 26, of Little Rock to eight years in prison after his April 1 guilty plea last year to charges of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and interference with commerce by robbery. Pettis admitted to being the getaway driver in a Feb. 28, 2013, robbery of the Shell station in Benton.

Pettis’ attorney, Lott Rolfe, argued that Pettis played a “minimal role” in the conspiracy and robbery, and shouldn’t have a prior burglary conviction count against him as a violent offense, increasing his penalty range. Rolfe also cited Pettis’ age, his past addictions to drugs and alcohol, and his character before the robberies, as described in letters submitted to the court by friends, family and his pastor.

Of the six men jointly indicted in June 2013, only one — Christopher Earnest Bell of Little Rock — hasn’t pleaded guilty. His trial is to begin March 7.

Antwann Sockwell is serving eight years, Mike Waller is serving 12 years, and Tony Bernard Smith is still awaiting sentencing.

All of those sentenced in the case have also been ordered to jointly repay $31,335.05 that was taken altogether from the 18 businesses from which money or property was taken.