Fayetteville trio sentenced in string of armed robberies

A federal judge ordered Xavier Deshawn Lymas, 24, Jessie Gomez, 26, and Lionel Bernard Newman, 23, to serve 200 months in prison followed by five years of probation for their roles in several convenience store robberies in Fayetteville and Hope Mills.

The men pleaded guilty early this year to conspiracy to rob businesses engaged in interstate commerce and using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. A fourth man, Jose Morales, has also pleaded guilty to the same charges and will be sentenced later, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said the crimes began Oct. 27, 2011, when the armed men went to the Lake Lynn Short Stop in Fayetteville. They intended to rob the business but decided there were too many customers inside, Instead, investigators said, they robbed a person sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot.

Later that night, the armed and masked men robbed a Kangaroo Express store in Fayetteville. Investigators said Gomez struck a clerk in the head with a handgun. That same evening, Newman and an unidentified accomplice used guns to rob a Kangaroo Express on Hope Mills Road in Hope Mills.