A Bowie County jury sentenced a man to life in prison Wednesday for the armed robbery of a convenience store in Nash, Texas, in November 2019.
Kendrick Lamar Hill, 33, was also ordered to pay the maximum fine of $10,000.
Investigators with Nash Police Department and Bowie County Sheriff’s Office noticed that the robbery suspect had a conversation with a Bowie County jail annex lieutenant in the parking lot of the Nash EZ Mart before the robbery.
The jail annex for Bowie County is located behind the Bi-State Justice Center in downtown Texarkana.
Hill has a long history of arrests in Bowie County and has been confined in the Bowie County jail on numerous occasions during his adult life.
Officers viewing the surveillance footage from the store recognized Lt. Kerry Manning and contacted him immediately at his home in Nash. Manning identified Hill as the person he’d spoken with in the parking lot.
A friend of Hill’s who lived a short walk from the convenience store approached police while they were investigating the robbery. He told them that Hill had been at his home earlier in the evening on the night of the robbery and had acted strangely and had money he hadn’t had before leaving without explanation for a brief time period.
That night Hill’s friend contacted police again to tell them he had found a black pistol under his porch. When officers recovered the gun, they discovered it was actually an air pistol.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards prosecuted the case. Crisp said Hill’s conviction for aggravated robbery this week is his 17th criminal conviction in Bowie County for misdemeanor and felony offenses including burglary, theft of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. Hill has a history of evading arrest as well.
A jury of four women and eight men decided the case following one day of testimony an arguments before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell. Assistant Public Defender Clayton Haas represented Hill.
Hill left the store with $78 dollars from the cash register.
