BENTON, Mo. -- Two Scott County men will serve 10 and 15 years in prison for a 1998 gas station robbery in Sikeston, Mo., while another man accused of killing the station's attendant will get a new attorney, court officials said.
Orlandis Farr of Malden, Mo., was given 10 years for first-degree robbery, and Michael Bell of Sikeston received 15 years for the same crime as they were sentenced Friday by Circuit Judge John Grimm of Cape Girardeau.
Farr, 22, and Bell, 21, were acquitted of murder charges but found guilty of robbery during a four-day jury trial in August. Both defendants were tried at the same time.
Farr, Bell and two other men reportedly held up an attendant at the now closed Kellet's Oil Co. early on the morning of June 6, 1998.
Michael Hatcher of Sikeston pleaded guilty to robbery shortly after his arrest in 1998 and agreed with the special prosecutor to testify against the other three.
Hatcher has testified in court that Darius Nicholson of Columbia, Mo., killed the gas station attendant with a .22-caliber handgun.
Nicholson appeared in court Friday for a hearing to decide whether he would remain with public defender Kent Hall as his attorney. A motion to dismiss Hall due to a conflict of interest had been filed by special prosecutor Marvin Teer a day before Nicholson's trial was to start in September.
Teer's motion noted that Hatcher and Nicholson had at one point both been represented by attorneys in the Jackson public defender's office.
During the Friday hearing, Hall said that he would withdraw himself as Nicholson's attorney.
An independent counsel for Nicholson will be appointed at a later date, likely during his next court appearance on Oct. 30.
Nicholson has already had two mistrials declared in his case. Last June Grimm declared a mistrial after a jury could not reach a unanimous decision. The second mistrial came during the second day of Nicholson's trial in September after the judge and attorneys agreed that the conflict of interest needed examination.
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