RALEIGH – A Wayne County man was sentenced in federal court to 147 months in prison for committing armed robberies in Kenly and Selma. Richard Lavar Carter of Pikeville entered his guilty plea on April 13, 2021. He was sentenced on August 11, 2021.
According to court documents and other information presented at trial, Carter and another unidentified suspect committed two armed robberies in Johnston County in the early morning hours of October 15, 2019. Around 3:00am, video surveillance footage from a Waffle House in Kenly, showed Carter brandishing a handgun at employees before fleeing the store with money from the register.
An hour later, video surveillance footage from the New Dixie Mart in Selma, showed Carter and another unidentified male sususpect brandishing a handgun and an AK-style rifle and robbing the store. During this robbery, Carter assaulted one of the store clerks with his handgun. Investigators were able to identify Carter’s face from the store video.
Carter was arrested on state charges on October 18, 2019. Carter was charged federally in April of 2020 and transferred to federal custody in May of 2020.
The Kenly Police Department, the Selma Police Department, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Aakash Singh prosecuted the case. G. Norman Acker, III, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt.
