Adult charges dropped against 17-year-old robbery suspect
Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/63387/
BENTONVILLE — Prosecutors dismissed adult charges Wednesday against one of the teens arrested for the attempted armed robbery of Wendy’s in Rogers.
Evan Garvey, 17, is now charged under the Extended Juvenile Adjudication Statute with conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, a class A felony.
Garvey — along with John Michael Schneider, 17; Aaron Isbell, 17; Ricardo Salcido, 17; Eduardo Hernandez, 17; and Jorge Hernandez-Gonzalez, 16 — was arrested in February after an attempted robbery of the restaurant.
Garvey has agreed to testify against the others, so prosecutors agreed not to pursue adult charges against him.
The teens were arrested Feb. 23. A woman was held at gunpoint by assailants in an attempt to get inside the restaurant, according to court documents and testimony.
Rogers police officer Jason Becker testified last week at a transfer hearing that he received a 1: 30 a. m. alert concerning an armed robbery at Wendy’s. Becker said that when he pulled into the parking lot, he saw two people running from the restaurant, so he chased them.
During the pursuit, Becker tripped in a drainage ditch. That’s when Becker saw one of the suspects with what he believed to be a shotgun. Becker fired one shot with his pistol. He saw the individual — who turned out to be Hernandez — fall to the ground, then get up and run. Becker chased the two, but they escaped in a Jeep Cherokee parked nearby.
Garvey testified during the hearing that he and a sleeping Hernandez-Gonzalez waited in the Jeep while Schneider, Isbell, Salcido and Hernandez went to rob the business. Hernandez had talked about robbing the business for weeks, and Schneider provided his father’s shotgun.
Last week, Circuit Judge Jay Finch found that Hernandez, Schneider, Isbell and Salcido should be tried as adults. Finch found that Hernandez-Gonzalez’s case should also be handled under the Extended Juvenile Adjudication Statute.
This law allows a juvenile to be tried as an adult, including receiving an adult sentence, but then to be treated as a juvenile until he turns 18.
Under the law, the case must be reviewed before an offender’s 18 th birthday. If his record has remained clean, he can be released on probation or with a suspended sentence; however, if rehabilitation attempts have failed, the offender can receive an adult sentence in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Schneider, Salcido, Isbell and Garvey were released from the Benton County jail after posting bail. Hernandez is being held in the Benton County Jail, and Hernandez-Gonzalez is being held in the Benton County Juvenile Detention Center.
A pretrial hearing in Garvey’s case is scheduled for 10 a. m. Aug. 4.