[8/20/03]Prosecutors said they will try again to get a jury to convict an accused armed robber the victim identified as the man who held her at gunpoint.

Ronnie D. Powell, 23, 1101 Jefferson St., No. 303, was returned to the Warren County Jail Tuesday following a mistrial that was announced by Judge Frank Vollor after jurors said they could not reach a verdict.

Powell remains accused of using a pistol to rob Moak Petroleum’s Openwood BP store, 1760 Oak Ridge Road, shortly after 8 a.m. on April 6. A new trial date was to be set, probably in November.

Powell testified Tuesday, admitting he gave a confession to a Warren County Sheriff’s Department detective but saying he did so because of threats and promises made by law-enforcement officers. He was arrested by Vicksburg police four days after the holdup.

“They didn’t tell me why I was being arrested; they told me that they knew I’d done it, I’d done this crime,” Powell testified.

Powell also told jurors he was brutalized by Vicksburg police detectives, threatened with physical violence if he did not confess, promised he would be released if he confessed and told that investigators might try to charge his fiancee with the crime if he didn’t confess. He also said he was provided with details of the crime to use in his confession.

The trial in Warren County Circuit Court began Monday and Assistant District Attorney Mike Bonner played the jury an audio recording of a statement, taken by sheriff’s department investigator Randy Lewis, that included this from Powell:

“I pulled over in the field and I came from the back of the store. I ran in and asked for money, got the money and ran out and jumped in the car and left.”

Questioned further by Lewis, Powell can also be heard admitting he had a pistol with him.

Defense attorney Richard Johnson argued that the audio recording of the statement wasn’t enough to show that Powell wasn’t coerced into confessing to the crime, and that a video recording could have done more.

Also during the recorded statement, VPD detective Tom Wilson can be heard reading Powell the rights defendants have to attorneys and against self-incrimination.

Powell admitted that his signature appears on a document that says he waived those rights, but said he didn’t remember signing it or being told those rights. He said he had been hit in the head by officers during his arrest, and that he had used marijuana earlier that day.

Bonner said Monday that Powell got away with about $90 in cash from the store. He also played the jury a video recording made by a surveillance camera in the store.

Powell was accused of wearing a mesh-weave stretch fabric over his head during the robbery. The clerk identified him as the robber in court Monday, though, saying she had gotten a good look at his eyes despite the material he was wearing during the robbery.

Also during the trial, Vollor jailed Angela Hall, 23, 609 Rigby St., identified as Powell’s fiance after she shouted from the gallery during Bonner’s closing argument. He charged her with disorderly conduct in a courtroom, ordering her to serve 30 days and pay a $100 fine.

Jurors deliberated three hours before saying they were deadlocked, then 20 minutes more before saying no verdict was possible.