Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – James Clark III, 25, was sentenced today to two life sentences in state prison after a jury found him guilty of two counts of armed robbery.

Clark was arrested in January 2021 as a suspect in a December 2020 robbery of the Dollar General at 2400 SE Hawthorne Road and has been in jail since that date. At the time of his arrest, he had two felony convictions and had served one state prison sentence, and Judge Mark Moseley set bail at $300,000.

A Gainesville Police Department investigation developed Clark as a suspect in the Dollar General robbery and a previous petit theft at the same store, during which the suspect wore the same mask. Detectives also identified Clark as a suspect in eight additional robberies in the Gainesville area and one in Bradford County. At one point, he faced 19 charges, including eight counts of armed robbery, one count of attempted armed robbery, nine counts of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, and aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony.

Clark’s trial on two counts of armed robbery lasted three days, and the jury found him guilty on both counts after deliberating for over an hour. Judge Bo Bayer sentenced him to two concurrent life sentences in state prison.