From this week's Country Star

Teens face minimum 5 years for robbery

By Doug Russell, News Editor

Sept. 3 — Two teens alleged to have robbed a store at gunpoint before leading police on a chase Aug. 20 are looking at a 5-year minimum sentence if they are convicted of Haskell County charges.

Steven Sebastion Ools, of Crowder, and Cody Lee Allen Beers, of McAlester, are each charged in Haskell County District Court with first-degree robbery with a dangerous weapon. Ools is also charged in Pittsburg County with felony counts of discharging a weapon from a vehicle and larceny of an automobile, as well as a misdemeanor count of eluding an officer. Beers is charged in Pittsburg County with discharging a weapon from a vehicle, as well as two counts of larceny of an automobile.

Discharging a weapon from a vehicle is a felony punishable upon conviction by imprisonment for two years to life.

Both 18, Ools and Beers are each being held in the Pittsburg County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond. If they make bond in that county, they’ll be turned over to Haskell County authorities, where a $250,000 bond has been set, according to Assistant District Attorney Russell Tacheira.

The pair are accused of robbing the Kinta EZ Mart around shortly after midnight Aug. 20. According to an affidavit filed in the case, the pair allegedly stole a Ford F-350 pickup truck from one location and, after discovering a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun in the truck, went to the EZ mart. Ools allegedly entered the store and got a 30-pack of beer, pulling out the handgun when the cashier on duty asked for his identification.

The cashier and a co-worker declined to talk to the News Sentinel about the incident.

For more on this story, pick up this week's Country Star. To subscribe to the newspaper, call 918-967-4655.

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