Sentenced to 10 years in prison

 

A man who robbed a South Point gas station at gunpoint last year admitted to the crime Wednesday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.

Matthew McFarland, 22, of South Point, pleaded guilty to a first-degree count of aggravated robbery of the Marathon station on County Road 450 on July 19, 2014.

He was later found incompetent to stand trial and sent to Summit Behavioral Healthcare center in Cincinnati to undergo treatment.

Judge Charles Cooper sentenced the man to 10 years in prison, one year shy of the maximum penalty, with credit for time served since his arrest.

McFarland was arrested after deputies found him walking along County Road 1 following an incident in which he pulled a gun on a Marathon cashier and demanded money. He then knocked the register to the floor and grabbed an undetermined amount of cash.

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

In other cases:

• Co-defendants Vanson Morisak, 50, of 421 Second St. E. Apt. 1, Huntington, and Charles Damron, 69, of 4428 West River Road, Huntington, were each arraigned on a second-degree count of burglary, to which they both pleaded not guilty.

Cooper set bond at $100,000 cash or surety in both cases and pretrials were set for July 15.

• Derrick Barker, 33, of 803 Solida Road Room 212, South Point, admitted CCS violations and was sentenced to nine months in prison.

• Raymond Parker, 54, of 65 Stowers Road, Griffithsville, West Virginia, was arraigned on a second-degree count of burglary, to which he pleaded not guilty. Bond was set at $100,000 cash or surety and a pretrial was set for July 15.

• Thomas Hardy, 48, of 102 Carey Drive, Coal Grove, was declared not competent to stand trial for counts of assault on a peace officer and misdemeanor aggravated menacing. He was ordered to undergo treatment at Summit Behavioral Health Care.