Man is sentenced for mugging good Samaritan

Wendell W. Hicks, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree robbery and second-degree assault charges before Circuit Judge John Moody in connection with the roadside mugging of a good Samaritan in April. Hicks was sentenced to seven years in prison on each charge with the sentences to be served concurrently.

He was originally charged in April with first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and armed criminal action after the sheriff's office received a call from a man who said he had been assaulted and wanted to be checked out by paramedics. When authorities arrived at the scene on Highway 5, the victim told them a woman he knew had called him asking for help because she had run out of gas and was stranded. She asked if he would bring her a gas can with gas so she could get home.

After arriving and putting gas in the woman’s vehicle, the man was attacked and beaten with a club by Hicks and another suspect, Brandon Twyman. The two attackers had been hiding in the woods just off the road; they robbed the victim and fled.

The victim, who was not identified, was transported to an area hospital with several facial lacerations; he was released later that night.

Twyman, Hick's accomplice in the mugging, pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison during the Oct. 3 law day.