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| Marc Hocking |
Marc Hocking, 30, of Benton, formerly of Marion, was arrested earlier this month for a 2016 armed robbery of McDonald’s employees in the restaurant parking lot.
Marion Police Chief Ray O’Neal said Hocking was served a warrant and taken into custody when he appeared recently for a family court appearance at Crittenden County Courthouse. Hocking was convicted in 2013 on felon drug charges in Crittenden County. He received a five-year sentence.
If found guilty of armed robbery, a Class B felony, Hocking will face 10-20 years in prison.
The police chief said DNA from a pair of dark sunglasses worn by the robber and recovered near the scene by police helped solve the case. Hocking had actually been a suspect in the hours following the alleged robber. He was questioned by police because he was witnessed at McDonald’s later that night wearing clothes that fit the description of the person who allegedly committed the crime.
“He’d come back to pick up a girlfriend who was working at McDonald’s,” the police chief said.
Hocking voluntarily allowed officers to take a DNA swab when he was questioned.
The robbery occurred on April 20, 2016, more than 16 months ago. More than $1,300 was taken in the robbery that occurred just before midnight when an armed man dressed in black robbed two employees at gunpoint while wearing black pants, a black hooded sweatshirt, black gloves and sunglasses.
O’Neal said a backlog of evidence at the state forensic lab often leads to long waits. He said evidence in more violent crimes is usually dealt with first, then cases such as this one.
Second Suspect Charged
Police have charged a second person in their investigation into the 2016 armed robbery of two McDonald’s employees who were held up at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Marion restaurant.
Kayla Elliot-Claycomb, 22, of Marion was served a warrant recently charging her with complicity to first-degree robbery in the April 20, 2016 incident.
Elliot-Claycomb was an employee of McDonald’s at the time and was on duty the night of the robbery, which was allegedly conducted by her then-reputed boyfriend, Marc Hocking, 30, of Benton. Hocking is charged with first-degree robbery after DNA evidence linking him to the crime came back from the state laboratory.
Marion Police Chief Ray O’Neal said investigators believe Elliot-Claycomb had conspired with Hocking by giving him information about how and when the employees leave the restaurant and head to the bank’s night depository with cash receipts.
Elliot-Claycomb was in the McCracken County Jail this when authorities served her with the warrant. She is being held in McCracken on an unrelated charge. Elliot-Claycomb is also a convicted felon from a previous Crittenden County drug case.
