A 20-year-old who was charged with the robbery and beating of a 71-year-old woman in the Northgate Mall parking lot and an 80-year-old woman at the Mapco on Highway 58 was sent off to state prison after entering guilty pleas on Thursday.
Carlos Kirksey, who was 19 at the time of the Jan. 12, 2016, attack, was given a three-year prison term on two robbery counts.
He got another three years for theft over $1,000 and evading arrest after he was out on bond on the robbery cases. That will be consecutive to the initial three years. It will be suspended, but he will be on state probation for the three years.
Kirksey appeared before Criminal Court Judge Don Poole.
The 71-year-old robbery victim testified earlier that she was walking to get her car and pick up her granddaughters when a stranger ran up behind her, punched her in the head, and stole her purse.
The violent mugging happened outside Salsarita’s.
Police arrested Kirksey that same night.
According to the woman, her two granddaughters were still inside the restaurant at the time of the attack. Though she did not see the face of her assailant, she noticed his dreadlocks and the back of his dark jacket as he ran away while she lay injured in the parking lot.
One witness testified he was driving in that area when he saw the robbery take place. He said he rushed out of his car and ran after the defendant while screaming at him to stop. The defendant looked back at the witness, and, though the witness could not catch him, later that night he pointed him out to police in a photo lineup.
Not long after that, police arrested Kirksey – the teen who matched the photo and fit the victim’s description – a quarter mile away from the crime scene on Hamill Road. The woman’s purse had already been found in the nearby Old Navy parking lot. Police found no cash or items of the victim on Kirksey.
The incident with the 80-year-old woman happened Jan. 4, 2016.
It was almost 7 a.m., she said, when she exited the Mapco after paying for gas. On her way out Kirksey, who she recognized as her grandson’s classmate, spoke to her in passing as if he was going inside the store. But then the woman felt someone yank her scarf, jerk her neck, and grab her purse.
She said she saw Kirksey start running towards two females in a “getaway car.”“He’s got it. Let’s get him,” the woman allegedly heard one of the females say.
She said her driver’s license, credit cards, and $300 cash were in her purse. She called police and they came to the scene within 25 minutes of the incident but turned up no suspects.
The victim said it was not until a week later that she saw Kirksey on the news for the robbery outside Northgate. She said she called police and told them, “This the guy who took my purse,” referring to Kirksey.