The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Man guilty of motel robbery




A Letcher County jury has found a man guilty of robbing a Whitesburg motel at knifepoint and is recommending he serve 12 years in jail.

Mark Joseph Morton, 25, of 95 Bicycle Lane, Whitesburg, was found guilty of first-degree robbery and intimidating a participant in the legal process in connection with the December 16 robbery at the Super 8 Motel in West Whitesburg.

Assistant Whitesburg Police Chief Tyrone Fields testified during the two-day trial in Letcher Circuit Court that Morton, while wearing a full-face toboggan, held a butcher’s knife to the throat of a Super 8 desk clerk and demanded money. Fields said Morton told the desk clerk if he called the police he would come back and kill him.

Fields said Morton lingered in the lobby of the Whitesburg motel for about 20 minutes while he made small talk with the desk clerk before asking to use the restroom. Fields said when Morton came out of the restroom, he showed the knife and demanded to be given all of the money from the cash register. An estimated $553.73 was taken.

A jury recommended on August 9 that Morton serve 10 years for robbery and two years for intimidating a witness, with the charges to run consecutively.

Sentencing is set for September.



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