Joplin resident, 20, sentenced to 10 years in ‘long-guns’ case

May 13, 2008 12:05 am

— By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
Another of the young defendants charged with armed convenience-store and home-invasion robberies on consecutive dates in January 2007 in Joplin was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.
Stafford W. Griffin Jr., 20, 2935 N. Michigan Ave., pleaded guilty in March to a single count of first-degree robbery in a plea agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office that dismissed three other felony counts he was facing. The agreement also limited the prison time he might be required to serve to no more than 10 years.
Circuit Judge Gayle Crane accepted the plea agreement and imposed the sentence at a hearing Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court.
The count to which Griffin pleaded guilty concerned a robbery Jan. 2, 2007, of the Conoco Super Stop at 1201 S. Range Line Road.
Griffin was charged with armed criminal action as well as robbery for his role in the crime.
He faced additional counts of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action for a home-invasion robbery the following day at 528 S. Jackson Ave. Four of the same suspects were accused of going to the home, and stealing cash and drugs at gunpoint.
The home-invasion charges and the count of armed criminal action in the convenience-store robbery were dropped in Griffin’s plea agreement.
The defendant’s younger brother, Rahman Griffin, 18, reached a similar plea agreement with the prosecutor’s office in March. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.
Michael Fields, an 18-year-old co-defendant in both robberies, pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree robbery and armed criminal action in the convenience-store case, and was assessed concurrent sentences of 10 and three years.
Jesse Moore, 20, still has charges pending in both robberies.
The youngest of the defendants in the convenience-store case, Aaron Lang, 17, initially was sentenced under the state’s dual-jurisdiction program for juveniles charged with adult offenses. He was sent to the dual-jurisdiction program in Montgomery City, but got into trouble with the program. The dual jurisdiction was revoked and the adult sentences imposed April 28. He is serving concurrent terms of 10 and five years.