MYRTLE BEACH — An Horry County grand jury indicted three men, who have been jailed since December, on charges related to robberies at three Myrtle Beach area stores that occurred hours apart, according to indictments released Monday.
Terry Michael Gause Jr., 19, and Jermaine Dyson, 23, both of Loris and Marckel Lamar Lewis, 21, of Tabor City, N.C., were each indicted on three counts of armed robbery in connection with the incidents late Dec. 3 and early Dec. 4, according to court records.
The men also were charged with weapons violations and kidnapping, but those charges were not indicted by the grand jury.
North Myrtle Beach police took the men into custody late Dec. 4 after they were alerted by Horry County and Myrtle Beach police regarding armed robberies in those jurisdictions and given descriptions of the suspects and their vehicle.
After the alert, a North Myrtle Beach officer saw the vehicle, an orange Chevrolet Cobalt going north on U.S. 17 and saw the driver stop for gas a Shell station at 1209 U.S. 17 South, according to the incident report. The officer stopped the vehicle as the driver attempted to leave that area.
Officers found a handgun in the rear floorboard of the vehicle where Dyson had been sitting and another gun under a seat next to it. Officers also found a plastic bag that contained a large sum of money in the vehicle.
The robbery in Myrtle Beach occurred about 11:15 p.m. Dec. 3 when police were called to Gullies convenience store at 1601 N. Kings Highway after a 45-year-old clerk reported two men came in, one man pointed a gun at her and demanded money from the cash register, police said.
The clerk said she opened the register and was ordered to put the money in a potato chip bag before the suspect asked her where the safe was located, according to the report. The clerk said she could not open the safe, so the suspect left the store.
The suspects, who wore masks over their faces and gloves on their hands, took about $200 cash then left, walking down an alley behind the store, according to the report.
In Horry County, police were called to two separate Kangaroo convenience stores for robberies soon after the Myrtle Beach incident, Sgt. Robert Kegler said at the time of the incident.
The first incident occurred at a store located at 62nd Avenue North and U.S. 17 Bypass, and the second at a store located at Lake Arrowhead Road at U.S. 17 Bypass, Kegler said. In each incident, Kegler said, the suspects went into the stores armed with handguns and demanded money and cigarettes.
It was unclear how much money or cigarettes were taken during the two Horry County robberies.
Contact TONYA ROOT at 444-1723 or follow her at Twitter.com/tonyaroot.
