A man who was facing a third-strike offense for robbing a downtown Vancouver convenience store with a pellet gun avoided the life sentence after pleading guilty to lesser charges. Instead, he will serve 10 years in prison.
Zackery Angel Flores, 25, entered an “in re Barr” plea in Clark County Superior Court to first-degree theft and third-degree assault — meaning he pleaded guilty to lesser related charges he didn’t commit to avoid conviction for a greater offense. He was originally charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree assault and would have served life in prison without parole if convicted.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, a store clerk at Minit Mart Quick Stop, 1901 Kauffman Ave., told police he was working in the back Nov. 12 when a masked man with a handgun entered the store and at gunpoint demanded he open the register. The suspect, later identified as Flores, took about $350 then left on foot.
Flores was arrested nearly a month later on an outstanding warrant and admitted to committing the robbery.
He said he entered the store masked and armed with a gray revolver pellet gun, which matched the clerk’s account and surveillance video, the affidavit says.
On Wednesday, Flores also pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine in a separate case. He, at some point, said he robbed the convenience store to fuel his methamphetamine habit, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu said. The stolen money, $346, was not recovered.
Flores’ defense attorney, Steve Rucker, said in an email Thursday that a significant consideration in Flores’ plea deal “was his youthful age in the offenses.”
“Courts nationwide are responding (to) the evidence of the youthful development in the application of adult consequences,” Rucker said.
However, because Flores was given leniency in avoiding a third-strike offense, he agreed to an exceptional upward sentence.
Before handing down his sentence, Judge Scott Collier asked Flores how long he thinks he’ll live. Flores said 75. Collier told him, with that estimation, he would have served 50 years in prison, if given the life sentence.
“You’re not going to get this break a second time,” Collier warned.
