Jury Says Robbery - Strike 3 Jurors Unknowingly Give Life Term By Deciding Against Misdemeanor

Find Larry Stapleton guilty of robbery and send him to prison forever, or convict him of a misdemeanor theft charge punishable by a short stint in jail.

Without knowing it, that was the tough choice a Spokane County jury made Friday.

Jurors deliberated a couple of hours before convicting the 33-year-old Deer Park man of second-degree robbery in a convenience store heist.

The decision sends the wiry construction worker, who has two prior armed robbery convictions, to prison for life with no chance of parole under Washington’s “Three Strikes, You’re Out” initiative passed overwhelmingly by voters in 1993.

While waiting for the jury to file into the courtroom with its verdict, Stapleton sat at the defense table in silent meditation, his hands clasped.

“He was sitting there praying,” said his attorney, Scott Mason. Stapleton admitted stealing about $150 from HiCo Village on East Sprague last fall.

Mason appealed for a third-degree theft conviction, saying no force or weapon was used, and there was no threat of violence.

But Stapleton did grab the clerk by the elbows and lead him to the cash registers.

That was enough for the jury of seven women and five men to find him guilty as charged. Soon, he will join 28 other state inmates currently serving “Three Strikes” sentences.

He belongs there, Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll said, because of his penchant for robbing people - once at gunpoint, another time with a knife.

Driscoll said Stapleton knew another robbery would expose him to mandatory life imprisonment, but “it just didn’t matter.”

Mason said he will challenge the constitutionality of the lock ‘em-up law when his client is sentenced Sept. 15. Without “Three Strikes,” Stapleton faced a five-year prison sentence for the robbery.

His face wrapped in black electrical tape, Stapleton entered the store shortly before midnight on Sept. 14. He sneaked up behind clerk Alison Combs by the deli section.

Combs denied being an employee and Stapleton allowed her to run outside.

Moments later, the thief surprised Shane Derr, who had emerged from the basement with a load of drinking cups.

Derr followed orders, opening the store’s two cash registers. Stapleton grabbed the cash and a carton of cigarettes and ran away.

Three days later, Stapleton covered part of his face with duct tape and tried robbing an Exxon minimart at Evergreen and Trent. Thinking it was a joke, the clerk didn’t cooperate.

Frustrated, Stapleton fled empty-handed.

Judge Richard Schroeder dismissed that attempted robbery charge Thursday after the prosecution rested its case, finding insufficient evidence of force or fear.

A license plate number obtained by a witness and a suspicious parole officer led to Stapleton’s November arrest. Despite the makeshift mask, store employees quickly identified the robber from photographs.

In his closing argument Friday, Driscoll asked jurors to put themselves in the shoes of the young, frail-looking clerk, Shane Derr.

“Suddenly - unexpectedly and without warning - you’re grabbed from behind,” the prosecutor said. “Thoughts run through your mind. You think about your co-worker. You might go to the counter and find her in a pool of blood.”

Driscoll said the degree of force used is immaterial. “A little force is still a robbery.”

Mason contended the crime was a notch above aggressive panhandling.

Stapleton has twice spent time in prison for armed robberies in Spokane, from 1985 to 1988, and from 1989 to 1992, records show. He also has convictions for first-degree theft and forgery. He is married with a 13-month-old daughter.

Family members said he resorted to crime to feed his methamphetamine habit but never hurt anybody.

He is the first Spokane County man convicted by a jury in a “third strike” case.

Last spring, Harold Bingham, 49, waived a trial and pleaded guilty to a residential burglary charge that sent him to prison for life. He had prior convictions for murder and robbery.

, DataTimes