Brandon J. White

A Callahan man who twice sought to have a female acquaintance accompany him while he robbed area stores was sentenced in circuit court on July 17 to 35 months in prison.

Brandon J. White, 30, entered a no contest plea to robbing the Raceway store and gas station on Woodlawn Rd. the morning of November 15 last year. The state dropped a companion count of petty theft as part of the plea agreement.

Mr. White got between $100-$150 in cash during the holdup using what turned out to be a pellet pistol. According to the investigative report, Tabitha Courson, 27, tipped off police later that day that Mr. White may be responsible.

He telephoned her about two hours before the 6:30 am stick-up and asked her if she wanted to “rob a store with him.” Ms. Courson said she connected the suspect to the robbery when she heard about it later from a friend.

She said she met Mr. White at a Glen St. Mary residence three days earlier. She called police when he again telephoned her and asked if she wanted to accompany him to rob the Walgreens in Macclenny.

By that time, Ms. Courson had made the call to police and she agreed to lure Mr. White back to an address off Eastwood Dr. where she was. He was arrested shortly after near Interstate 10 based on her description of his vehicle.

In other sentencings that court session:

• Judge Phyllis Rosier ordered Charlie Lee Hodges to county jail for a year, to be followed by a year on drug offender probation, after he pleaded no contest to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The judge allowed time already served for disorderly intoxication and battery as a repeat offender. Mr. Hodges must attend Alcoholic Anonymous meetings regularly during probation.

• Winchee Coleman pleaded no contest to burglary and criminal mischief and drew a ten-month jail sentence. He was ordered to pay $101 restitution and do 50 hours community service.

• The state agreed to drop twin child abuse charges against Claude Wendell Mann in return for a no contest plea to domestic battery. Judge Rosier sentenced him to 59 days he has already served in jail.

• Stephen Collett will be on drug offender probation 18 months and was sentenced to the 120 days he has been in jail for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.

The judge also ordered him to enroll in anger management class.

• Benjamin James Davis will do 100 hours community service and be on drug offender probation two years after pleading no contest to grand theft. The judge withheld adjudication of guilt and ordered the defendant to pen an apology letter to the victim.

• Brittany Grimes pleaded no contest to possession of chemicals to produce controlled drugs and will be on drug offender probation one year. She was also ordered to complete 50 hours community service.

• Travis Johnston was allowed 63 days credit for time in jail, then ordered onto a year on drug offender probation after pleading to possession of marijuana with intent to sell and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and possessing paraphernalia.

He will do 50 hours community service and write an apology letter.

• John Markham admitted to violating probation in two cases from 2011, and was given 60 days in jail. Douglas Simpson admitted to the same offense and received a nine-month sentence. Joshua Teston violating probation and got six months, as did Wesley Zipperer who got a year in jail.

A capias warrant was issued for Odies Turner, who failed to appear in court that day for felony driving on a revoked license.

Sentencing for David Hill for sexual battery on a child was postponed until later after public defender George Nelson filed a motion for a new trial alleging, among other things, that the victim has recanted testimony she gave during a recent trial.