BECKLEY, W.V. (LOOTPRESS) – A Beckley man was sentenced on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, for his involvement in a planned robbery of the Venus Lounge in Beaver. Judge Robert A Burnside Jr presided over the sentencing.
According to the criminal complaint, on December 13, 2018, Eric Morris entered the Venus Lounge- located at 3166 Robert C. Byrd Drive- with a firearm and demanded that the attendant open the safe and give him all of its contents: a sum of money totaling nearly $1,500. After the robbery, Morris ran toward Rails to Trails. He was arrested in January of 2019.
Upon investigation, law enforcement discovered that Morris had been working with two co-conspirators. The two women did not receive any of the stolen money.
On Wednesday, Morris pled guilty to Attempt to Commit a Felony to wit: First Degree Robbery and Felony Conspiracy.
He was sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of not less than one nor more than three years on the attempt, as well as an indeterminate sentence of not less than one nor more than five years on the felony conspiracy.
Judge Burnside ordered that the two sentences run consecutively with one another for a sentence of not less than two nor more than eight years in the custody of the West Virginia Division of Corrections (DOC).
