Robbery suspect held on $100K bond

Published 11:19 am Tuesday, July 22, 2014

SOUTH POINT — A man who allegedly robbed a South Point gas station on Saturday was arraigned in Lawrence County Municipal Court this past Monday and will have his preliminary hearing on July 28.

Matthew McFarland, 22, of Grandview Inn Room 314 in South Point, is charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, and is being held on a $100,000 cash or surety bond.

McFarland was arrested on Saturday along County Road 1 in South Point by deputies from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office after allegedly admitting he robbed the Marathon gas station on County Road 450 at gunpoint.

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McFarland allegedly pulled a gun on the cashier and demanded money before knocking the register to the floor and grabbing an undetermined amount of cash.

Upon a search of the area, deputies saw a man matching the suspect’s description wearing different clothes walking along County Road 1.

Clothes matching those described by the gas station clerk were found in the woods nearby and the suspect allegedly confessed to robbing the store.

McFarland surrendered the cash to deputies and claimed he used a toy plastic gun in the holdup, although no gun was found on the suspect or where he claimed to have left it.

“I want to commend my deputies,” Jeff Lawless, Lawrence County Sheriff, said in a press release. “Their quick actions and attentiveness has resulted in a quick arrest in the robbery and another robbery at Subway just several days ago.”