By By MARY-ALLISON LANCASTER – Managing editor
Three Grove Hill men were arrested Thursday in connection with an armed robbery at a title cash store in Brewton two weeks ago.
According to police reports, the three men were wanted in connection for robbing Pay Day Cash and Title Loans, located at 700 Douglas Ave., on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 6:04 p.m.
According to Brewton Police Chief Monte McGougin, Ronald Cordell Nicholson, 17, Earl Lee Pace Jr., 24, and Billy Lee Pendleton Jr., 28, were being transferred from Clarke County to the Escambia County Detention Center Friday afternoon.
According to McGougin, Pendleton had been &#8220casing the establishment” for a while and had learned the routines and the layout of the store. McGougin said that Nicholson entered the store with a gun and Pendleton robbed the store of $3,000 in cash and a clerk's cell phone Tuesday night. Pace was waiting in the car and all three men fled after the robbery.
McGougin said that the men traveled on Appleton Road in the car and dumped masks, gloves and the money bag in a yard. The items were discovered the next day by a resident who was checking her mailbox. The resident alerted the police of the items she discovered.
McGougin said that because the items had been dumped on Appleton Road, it led them to believe the people who committed the crime weren't from the Brewton area.
McGougin said that the men had traveled back to Clarke County and were discussing what they had done in Brewton. An investigator with the Clarke County Sheriff's department contacted the Brewton Police Department and asked if there had been a robbery. The robbery was confirmed by Brewton police.
Two of the men were brought in for questioning and eventually confessed to the crime. The third man was arrested later in the evening.
All three men were charged with robbery, first degree, which is a felony.
Bond had not been set Friday.