A Texarkana man suspected of stabbing a clerk at New Ways convenience store last year was indicted Thursday for aggravated robbery in Bowie County.
Garrick Reece, 42, is accused of wearing a camo ski mask when he walked up to the store at about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 19, a probable cause affidavit states. A clerk who was outside on a smoke break told investigators the masked man was holding a knife and forced him back inside the business. Once inside, the clerk was stabbed in the side and threatened with death if he didn’t hand over cash from the register and several packs of cigarettes.
The clerk did as the robber demanded and the attacker ran away with the loot.
The store’s owner showed detectives video surveillance footage in late January of a man he believed to be the robber “because of his eyes.” The store owner told police the man he suspects committed the robbery was a regular customer up to the time of the robbery. But it wasn’t until a tip was made to Crime Stoppers Feb. 4 specifically crediting Reece with the crime that investigators had a name to go with the face on the store’s video.
Investigators talked to Reece and made a positive comparison of him to the convenience store video footage provided by the store’s owner. Reece allegedly told officers his wife probably made the Crime Stoppers call because she was angry with him.
When investigators met with Reece’s wife Feb. 5, she reportedly told investigators that Reece admitted robbing and stabbing the clerk on the night of the hold-up after showing her about $500 in cash. The wife also told detectives Reece said he’d tossed the camo ski mask in woods on Buchanan Road north of the store. After looking in the woods, investigators found a ski mask like the one worn during the robbery.
Reece is currently being held in the Bowie County jail. If convicted of aggravated robbery, he faces five to 99 years or life in prison.
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