By Ray King

An Arkansas prison inmate convicted seven years after being charged with robbery failed to convince the Arkansas Court of Appeals there was not enough evidence to support his conviction.

Quintin Bailey, now 38, was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison on two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of theft of property and a firearms enhancement stemming from a robbery of two employees of Mazzio’s Pizza in White Hall on Feb. 2, 2015.

According to trial testimony, the two employees, who were managers of the business, were sitting in a car on the parking lot after the business closed when a tan Chevrolet Tahoe pulled up and a man later identified as Bailey walked up to a half-open window and produced a handgun. He took a cell phone belonging to one of the two and a purse from the other before getting into the vehicle and driving away on I-530 toward Little Rock.

The women called 911 and two White Hall officers arrived while other officers set up on the Interstate to look for the Tahoe. White Hall Police Maj. Mickey Buffkin, who worked for the sheriff’s office at the time saw the Tahoe and joined in the search for the vehicle, which was stopped by a sheriff’s deputy.

Buffkin testified that he saw a handgun and cell phone in plain sight in the Tahoe and Bailey was the only occupant. Another deputy contacted officers who were with the victims and a call was placed to the victim’s cell phone which was found in the Tahoe.

At trial, neither victim was positively able to identify Bailey as the person who robbed them because he was wearing a mask but that the man that they saw standing outside the Tahoe was the one that robbed them. Buffkin also testified that the description given by the victims of the person who robbed them fit Bailey perfectly.

Bailey is serving his sentence at the Quachita River correctional facility in Malvern and will be eligible to apply for parole in 2031.