After a brief trial, 29-year-old Clayton Trammel faces sentencing Dec. 3 for armed robbery.

Jurors returned the verdict just after lunch on Tuesday, having been seated in Warren County Circuit Court on Monday.

Testimony indicated Trammel, 105 Foy Circle, robbed the Piggly Wiggy on Halls Ferry Road on April 24, 2007. One issue was that employees did not see a weapon.

The defendant “handed an employee a note that said, ‘Put all your money in the bag; I have a gun and I will use it. Don’t make a sound,’” said Assistant District Attorney Angela Carpenter. “Legally, if somebody commits an overt act that causes a reasonable person to believe what they’re saying, then they can be charged with that act. So, even if he did not have a gun, he caused the employee to believe that he did and that her life was in danger, so he can be charged like he had a gun. We’re satisfied with the verdict,”

About $4,400 in cash and an undetermined amount of payroll checks, Western Union slips and Western Union money orders were reported taken in the holdup.

The conviction marks the ninth in 11 cases tried by District Attorney Ricky Smith and Assistant District Attorneys Dewey Arthur and Carpenter during their first year in office.

The other two ended in mistrial and will be tried again.

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Contact Megan Holland at mholland@vicksburgpost.com.