Man gets up to 4½ years for pistol-whipping Dayton clerk in vape shop robbery

Montgomery County Common Pleas Courtroom. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Montgomery County Common Pleas Courtroom. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

A Dayton man who pistol-whipped a clerk on the face during a September vape shop robbery will spend 3 to 4½ years in prison.

Owen Ray Lingus was sentenced by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Montgomery after he pleaded guilty Dec. 8 to aggravated robbery, according to court documents filed Monday.

Owen Lingus

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

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Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Additional counts of aggravated robbery and felonious assault and accompanying firearm specifications that would have added time at sentencing were dismissed as part of his plea agreement. Lingus also received 90 days jail time credit and once released will be on parole for up to five years, according to sentencing documents.

Dayton police responded Sept. 9 to Beso’s Vape Shop at 765 Troy St. after a man, later identified as Lingus, was wearing all black clothing, including a black bandanna over his face, and had a black handgun when he robbed the business, according to an affidavit filed in Dayton Municipal Court.

Lingus was accused of hitting the clerk’s face with the gun, which caused the woman to suffer “a serious injury to her right eye area from being struck,” the affidavit stated.

Bystanders told officers that the suspect had taken off some of his clothes and was in the area of the 600 block of Troy Street. Officers spotted Lingus and ordered to him to stop, but he ran. Officers apprehended him next to a home in the 400 block of Deeds Avenue, the document read.

Officers searched the area where Lingus initially was hiding and found the stolen strongbox, a loaded Glock handgun and black clothing. The strongbox only contained about $20 in different denominations, the affidavit stated.

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