A man who police say was the driver in one armed robbery in 2001 and then another Dec. 21, 2012, is seeking to suppress his statement to police in the latest holdup.
Criminal Court Judge Don Poole heard testimony Monday in the case of Darrell Lamar Brooks, 29. The hearing will be continued on May 5.
Brooks in 2003 pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary. He got an 8-year sentence suspended after serving 11 months and 29 days on the robberies and on the burglary.
Police said Brooks was again the driver at a holdup at a local Dollar General Store on Dec. 21, 2012, in which two black males went inside and put a gun to the head of a female clerk. She was forced into the back of the store.
A nearby resident reported seeing a white 2001 Impala pull up at the nearby Rite Aid. He said two black males got out and went into the Dollar General. A short time later, they ran back out to the waiting vehicle.
An officer moments later began following the Impala. The occupants jumped out of the vehicle, and Brooks injured his leg when he tumbled from the moving car. He was captured, but the two others got away.
In an interview with robbery detective Jason Woods that was played in court, Brooks said he never went into the store and that he did not know the name of the two men with him. He said he had picked them up a short time earlier so they would give him gas money.
He said he had spent much of that day "smoking weed" and going to buy marijuana. He said, in between, he picked up his three kids at the Kandy Kastle child care center.
Detective Woods said beer taken in the robbery was found in the Impala along with a backpack and a ski mask.
He said the video at the Rite Aid was not working at the time.
Attorney John Allen Brooks said Brooks has been attending college since getting out on bond.