Robbery trial nears verdict.

Bobby Oneal Barnes, 49, Live Oak, was convicted Wednesday of robbing a convenience store and stabbing the clerk on March 22, 2008.

Barnes was charged with armed robbery while wearing a device to conceal his identity; aggravated battery, great bodily harm while wearing a device to conceal his identify and/or displaying or carrying a weapon; and false imprisonment while wearing a device to conceal his identity and using or displaying a weapon.

Testimony began Tuesday in the case, as the victim, a former convenience store clerk, took the stand.

During her testimony, she explained to jurors the events that took place the day Barnes approached her as she stood outside taking a cigarette break and talking on the phone at the Jiffy Food Store on US 90 and Lee Street in Live Oak. The store has since been closed.

The woman was forced back inside and to the register as Barnes yielded a butcher’s knife, made her open the cash register and stabbed her in the stomach upon forcing her to the back of the store, according to testimony. His face was partially covered by a stocking mask.

Video footage of the crime was played over and over throughout the course of the case as she could be heard screaming: “Oh God, don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me.”

Barnes escaped with nearly $500 in cash and left the woman hospitalized with a serious stab wound to the stomach.

The clerk told officers at the time that she believed she had recognized the man as a previous customer, remembering his mouth and teeth, which she said, “had a large tooth in front and gold.”

She also identified Barnes in a photo line-up presented to her later by an investigator, circling his picture and writing beside his image: “This is the one.”

Barnes, during his testimony, however, said he had long been missing his two upper front teeth and had never had any gold caps in his mouth. He told prosecutor Kyle McLeod, “I know 100 percent that I didn’t do that to that woman,” and claimed he had never been to that convenience store in his life.

However, a comment Barnes made shortly after his 2008 arrest to Suwannee County Deputy Adam Prins, conflicted with that testimony.

Prins testified that while in jail, he asked Barnes if he knew why he was in jail, to which he said Barnes replied: “Oh, you’re talking about the Jiffy Store.”

Prins said that struck him as odd and testified that Barnes then said, “Oh, yeah, I did that.”

However, Barnes, responding from the witness stand to questions from his attorney John Broling, said only made the comment to irritate Prins, whom he didn’t much like. Barnes testified that at the time of the crime, he was in no condition to run or perform several of the actions seen in the video because he was still recovering from injuries sustained in a previous shooting, which left it difficult for him to walk, bend or dress himself.

“I cannot run sir,” Barnes told prosecutor McLeod later during cross-examination.

But jurors disagreed.

It took them less than an hour to return with their verdict: guilty on all three counts.

Sentencing will be set at a later date.