Reginald Thadeous Blevins walked into court in handcuffs and stood passively as a judge pronounced the only sentence he could for a 2020 robbery and shooting of a convenience store clerk – life in prison.
That life sentence – without possibility of parole – was automatic because the defendant’s five prior felony convictions tagged him as a “habitual offender.” That includes murder in the 2013 shooting death of Joey O’Brien.
Blevins, 36, already is serving a 17-year sentence on the 2013 murder. He was on probation for that when he shot a clerk at the CEFCO station on Spring Hill Avenue on Jan. 17, 2020. A judge revoked it after his arrest on the new charge. “I would say some relief that he is gonna be accountable for his actions and relief that he is not on the street to hurt other people,” she said.
Surveillance video from the CEFCO holdup shows a robber walking inside trying to steal 12-packs of Bud Light. The clerk tries to block him from leaving, and he shoots her before running away from the store.the robber from the surveillance video was Blevins. Prosecutors presented evidence that Blevins previously tried to steal beer from the same gas station and that he carried out beer without paying at a store in Daphne just days before the shooting.