‘Just take me to jail, man’

By Brendan Kirby

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — A Texas man who admitted to holding up a Daphne gas station and then blowing through an immigration checkpoint while on the run from that charge will go to prison for two years and three months, a federal judge decided Thursday.

Melvin Henrillien, 32, of Baytown, Texas, pleaded guilty in March to the federal robbery charge, formally called interfering with interstate commerce.

According to his written plea agreement, Henrillien went into the Chevron gas station on Alabama 181 in Daphne at about 4 a.m. on March 24, 2020. Surveillance video shows him dressed in black shoes, gray sweatpants, a burgundy T-shirt.

Henrillien admitted that he approached the cashier and ordered him to “empty the register,” according to the plea document. He placed a hand in his waistband and told the clerk he did not want to hurt him, according to the plea document.

After making off with $280 in a white plastic bag, Henrillien called 911 about 20 minutes later, according to the plea agreement.

“Yeah, I just saw a robbery at the Chevron by the Comfort Inn right next to I-10,” he said, before hanging up.

According to the plea agreement, the Chevron station’s phones were not working at the time, but the employee used a customer’s cell phone to report the holdup.

Daphne police saw Henrillien on Alabama 181 near Rileywood Drive at about 4:45 a.m. They found he was carrying $223 in cash, a Choice Hotel key, two cell phones and a wallet, according to the plea agreement.

When officers asked Henrillien why he was talking down the highway at that hour, he answered, “Just take me to jail, man.”

Court records show that Henrillien told police he had gotten into a car wreck three days earlier and had been staying at the motel ever since. The plea document shows that when pressed, he said, “Take me to jail. Let the judge do what she’s got to do, or he’s got to do.”

Henrillien was on pretrial release awaiting trial on that charge when he left the state without permission and headed for Texas. On June 21 last year, according to his plea agreement, he came to a U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint near Sarita, Texas.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted to contraband, and Henrillien complied with a request to open his trunk.

The dog and his handler started to look inside, and Henrillien sped away at a high rate of speed. A chase reached speeds of 10o mph and continued for nine miles until he stopped at a rest area.

Court records indicated that Henrillien told agents he fled because he had a pending arrest warrant. Agents found two metal grinders containing a small amount of marijuana residue, according to the plea agreement.

The defense argued that an enhancement for brandishing or using a weapon should not apply because Henrillien did not have a gun. But prosecutors pointed to previous rulings by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the enhancement applies to people who “simulated possession of weapons” while they were committing robberies.

“As the video shows, Henrillien kept his hand in his waistband continuously as (the gas station employee) emptied out all the cash in the register and put it into a plastic bag in compliance with Henrillien’s demand,” The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Mobile wrote in a sentencing memo.

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