NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Two men were sentenced for robbing the clerks inside a Video Game Heaven store on Colonial Avenue in 2023. The two committed an additional robbery in Chesapeake on the same day.
Jayvon Bell, 25, was sentenced on Dec. 6 to serve three years in prison. Meanwhile, his co-defendant Eddie King, 23, was sentenced in October to serve five years in prison.
On Aug. 22, 2023, the two went into the video games store, waiting until other customers left, before robbing the two clerks at gunpoint. King demanded the cashier put all the money in the register into a plastic bag while Bell stole several video games and game console controllers.
The two then left with the stolen goods and drove off in a minivan.
Within hours, another robbery in Chesapeake was committed by individuals with the same descriptions.
Norfolk investigators submitted the minivan’s information to the Flock license plate recognition system and received alerts that the minivan was driving in the direction of Video Game Heaven before that robbery and then away from the store just after.
Three days later, Chesapeake Police officers located and pulled over the minivan and arrested Bell. He admitted to Norfolk investigators owning the minivan at the times of each robbery.
King was identified after police connected him to a previous shoplifting incident with Bell and King back in 2022.
The following month, King was arrested by Chesapeake Police for the Aug. 22 robbery in Chesapeake. Search warrants of King’s cellphone records showed he was near the Video Game Heaven at the time of the Norfolk robbery.
Norfolk Police secured warrants against both men for armed robbery, using a firearm in the commission of robbery and conspiring to commit robbery.
Both co-defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced earlier this year in Chesapeake Circuit Court to their charges stemming from the Chesapeake robbery.
On April 29, King agreed to plead guilty to armed robbery in Norfolk, and had his additional charges dismissed. On Oct. 18, King was sentenced to serve five years in prison and suspended another five years on the conditions that he be of uniform good behavior and comply with supervised probation for five years, be banned from the Video Game Heaven store and contacting the victims, and pay restitution to the store.
Bell initially pleaded not guilty to his charges and requested to be tried by a jury. Some potentially condemning evidence was blocked in court by a judge at the request of Bell’s attorney. However, there was still enough evidence to go to trial.
On Sept. 24, before his trial, Bell agreed to plead guilty to armed robbery and be sentenced to a maximum active term of five years in exchange for the Commonwealth dismissing his additional charges. On Friday, Judge Lannetti sentenced Bell to serve three years in prison and suspended another five years on the same conditions ordered in King’s case.
“Mr. Bell and Mr. King held up the victims at gunpoint and for financial gain, endangering the victims and themselves,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “We are fortunate that nobody was physically hurt, and now both of these men will go to prison for what they have done. I hope that, upon their release, they make better choices and go on to law-abiding lives.”
