LR man acquitted of robbery charge

A 21-year-old Little Rock man accused of helping to hold up two men at gunpoint has been cleared of aggravated robbery charges after his second trial.

Pulaski County jurors deliberated about four hours Thursday to acquit Robert Earl Corney IV after a threeday trial before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.

Corney’s first trial in September ended with a hung jury. Jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict after about five hours of deliberation, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

Corney was accused of being one of three robbers who attacked two men, Leonarde Cruz and Bernabe Ciega, in January 2014 at the Southern Pines Mobile Home Park on South Heights Road.

Corney’s lawyer, Bobbi Patterson, said he was the victim of mistaken identity.

Ciega was the only one of the two victims who conclusively identified Corney as one of the robbers, picking Corney’s picture out of a photo lineup. Cruz tentatively chose a different photo and said he did not get as good a look at the assailants as Ciega did. The two other robbers were never identified.

Police said Corney had crossed paths with the men at a nearby convenience store shortly before the holdup. Investigators said the robbers followed the men from the store after seeing that the victims had money.

Corney’s mother has said he was home with her at the time of the holdup. His lawyers also said his court-ordered ankle monitor shows that he was at home that day.

Prosecutors contended that Corney deliberately targeted Hispanic victims like Ciega and Cruz. He has two robbery convictions for helping rob two other Hispanic men in the same area in December 2013, court records show. He pleaded no contest to those charges in exchange for five years on probation.