JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two men involved in a robbery that turned deadly after their accomplice was shot and killed by police were sentenced Friday for murder.
In October 2005, Amos Rains, Clarence Whitfield and Ronald Thompson were caught on surveillance video breaking into and robbing the Auto Zone on Cassat Avenue.
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Police confronted the men as they tried to leave the business. Police opened fire and killed Thompson.
Because Rains and Whitfield were involved in a crime that led to a person's death, they were both charged with murder.
Last month, Rains and Whitfield pleaded guilty to felony murder.
The violent nature of the crime was revealed in court Friday as the surveillance videotape of the armed robbery was played in court.
The video showed the horror the victims faced inside the store as the three masked men rushed in and forced employees and customers to the ground at gunpoint.
"He had his gun in my back," former Auto Zone store manager, Jamie Overman, testified before the judge.
The surveillance showed Overman being led into an office with a gun pointed toward her.
"I quit four months later because of anxiety. I couldn't stay in the store. If somebody walked in and was loud when they walked in, I'd have panic attacks and go in the office and cry," Overman said.
Also in court was Sorvino Rodriquez, a customer in the store at the time of the robbery. He said the incident was something he would never forget.
"It was a very horrifying experience -- very scary not knowing if that was the end of the rope," Rodriquez said.
Whitfield and Rains sat and listened and at times wiped tears away as their family and friends took the stand to plead for mercy.
"My baby has to see his father through a window. He tries to grab him but he can't. Judge, please, I beg you," said Rains' fiancée, Tiffany Nelson.
After witnesses, the suspects were given a chance to ask the judge for mercy.
"Your honor, all I ask today is could you please show mercy on me. Please give me another chance to be able to raise my son," Rains asked.
However, in the end, Judge John Merrett had little mercy, saying the men's actions led to the death of another suspect and changed many other lives.
"The pity that I feel for you is no substitute for justice. As for count one, for the death of your friend Ronald Thompson, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole," Merrett said to Whitfield.
Rains also faced possible life in prison, but the judge gave him 50 years in prison.
