FORT PIERCE − Two armed robbers of a Fort Pierce gas station were sentenced last week to federal prison after pleading guilty to robbery and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime.
The clerk was the only person in the Sunoco at 3306 Orange Ave., when the two men entered the store just before 6 a.m., April 24, 2023, Fort Pierce police records show.
As one man approached and asked about medication, police said in a report that he brandished a pistol, struck the clerk in the head and held her at gunpoint during the robbery.
Prosecutors stated the pair took upwards of $4,200 between register and arcade machine funds.
The men ran from the store into a vehicle driven by a third person and fled leading to a week-long police search for them, according to the records.
Roderick Baker, 23, of Jacksonville, and Eugene Jacques, 21, of the 1100 block of North 37th Street, Fort Pierce, were arrested in May and charged with robbery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with the intent to commit a felony and third-degree grand theft. Only the robbery charge was upheld; the other two charges were dropped for both men, court records show.
A detective stated while “both suspects removed … currency” from the register, Jacques was the person who “brandished a pistol, struck her in the head and said, ‘Give me the money’, and that surveillance security footage showed “both suspects enter the business and commit the said crime.”
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg sentenced Jacques to just over 10 years’ prison and Baker to seven years, three months in prison. Both men will have three years of probation following their release, according to the Southern District of Florida United State’s Attorney’s Office.
Fort Pierce police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives worked together in the investigation.
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Corey Arwood is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow @coreyarwood, or call 772-978-2246.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Two men sentenced to prison for armed robbery of Fort Pierce gas station
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