Convenience store robber to spend four years in prison

Having an opportunity to steal money from a cash register drawer and then flee from law enforcement did not prompt him to walk into Rick’s Stop and Shop convenience store in Quinton last November. That’s the explanation Kenneth Lee Barnes delivered to Judge Thomas B. Hoover during the defendant’s May 3 sentencing in New Kent Circuit Court on charges of grand larceny and eluding police.

“I wasn’t in the right state of mind,” Barnes told the judge. “I had no intention of doing that action. I went in to get a cold drink. I was dehydrated.”

But Barnes, 49, of 4212 Welford Ave., Richmond, also came out with a fistful of cold cash. He claimed he was high on cocaine when he entered the store. He said he told the lone clerk on duty he was sorry as he ran out with the money.

Hoover, however, did not buy Barnes’ story, adding that getting high is no excuse. The judge also quizzed the defendant on why, if he felt sorry, he didn’t just drop the money or pull over for police.

“When you put your hand in the cash drawer, that makes it intentional,” the judge told the defendant. “There’s no such thing as an accidental robbery.”

Hoover followed terms of a plea agreement accepted during Barnes’ March trial in sentencing the defendant to an active prison term of four years that includes therapeutic drug treatment.

The judge imposed 20 years with all but four suspended for the next 40 years on the grand larceny conviction and five years, all suspended for 40 years, on the eluding count.

Last Nov. 13, Barnes walked into the store, picked up a bottled drink, and handed money to the clerk. He also requested a lottery ticket. When the clerk opened the cash register, Barnes reached over the counter, told the clerk “I need this,” and began snatching bills.

As he ran from the store, the clerk immediately reached for a phone and called 911, relaying a description of Barnes and the vehicle he was driving along with a license plate number.

Barnes drove east on Route 249 and turned south on Airport Road. That’s where Chief Deputy Joe McLaughlin encountered Barnes’ vehicle heading the other way.

McLaughlin turned his unmarked cruiser in pursuit. The chase turned on to Terminal Road, a dead end street. Reaching the end, Barnes reversed direction through a private yard and headed back on Terminal Road, but crashed as he reached the Airport Road intersection.

Barnes got out of the vehicle and refused to obey McLaughlin’s commands, lunging at the deputy. McLaughlin then fired a taser gun to subdue the defendant as other deputies arrived on the scene.

At last week’s sentencing, prosecutor Linwood Gregory read excerpts from a victim impact statement written by the clerk.

“I have lost all sense of security. I am leery of people I’ve known or have been customers for years,” Gregory read.

Defense attorney Jean McKeen, meanwhile, put on Barnes’ family members who testified to mental issues the defendant has battled since the murder of his mother when he was a child.

“Significant mitigating factors” exist, McKeen said in asking the court for a lesser sentence.

“His way of dealing with it was to self-medicate,” she said, pointing to her client’s history of drug abuse.

But Hoover noted that Barnes never sought treatment or counseling, even after incurring a robbery conviction in Arizona in 1983.

“I’ve never heard a good reason why he didn’t get his own counseling in the past 20 years,” said the judge.

Turning to Barnes, Hoover said, “You had the opportunity to get into a treatment program you’re asking for today and didn’t do it. You made the decision to go out and get crack cocaine that day instead of mental health treatment.”

Hoover also criticized the plea deal as “overly generous” to the defendant in light of Barnes’ previous criminal history.

“It should be more than four years, but the commonwealth limited me to four years,” the judge said.