ROANOKE TIMES  
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995             TAG: 9512070080
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO  
DATELINE: PEMBROKE
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above

TIME BOUGHT AT STORE

SHE ASKED TO SEE ID. Instead, the young man pulled out a gun, the clerk said.

Mona Hilton takes the law seriously.

That's why the 65-year-old clerk at the M&W Market wanted to see some ID when a youthful-looking customer and his partner asked for a pack of Marlboros on Tuesday night.

"I asked for an ID because they looked too young to buy cigarettes," Hilton said.

She had no way of knowing that an hour or so later, her customers would be arrested and charged with the murder of a Virginia Tech student.

"The real short boy raised up his shirt and pulled out a gun," Hilton said, standing near the counter of the M&W Market Wednesday. "He pointed the gun at me and said, `Give me your damn money.'"

Her first reaction when she saw the gun was anger.

"They made me mad. I just told them the register wasn't open," Hilton said.

She said one of the men demanded the keys to her car. "I told him that belongs to someone else," she said.

W.E. "Bill" Williams, owner of the M&W Market, had just arrived at his store after feeding his cattle and was "piddling around" outside when he noticed an unfamiliar vehicle parked near the front door around 8:10 p.m. There was one passenger sitting in the car.

Williams felt a twinge of uneasiness because he had just heard about a convenience store robbery in nearby Eggleston. News travels fast along the Giles County grapevine.

"I walked into the store and went around the counter," Williams recounted. "I saw a little short guy holding a gun on Mona. That's when I tried to make my move on him."

Williams, 66, said he made a grab for the robber but didn't get far.

"He pointed the gun right at me and said, `I'll blow your head off!'" Williams said. "When he did that, I backed up."

Williams told his clerk to hand over the paper bag filled with change they keep under the counter to replenish the cash register.

"I think it was about $44," he said.

Hilton said the two then grabbed the money bag and ran out the door. She immediately called the sheriff's office.

Williams waited a minute, then went out to his car. "I was nervous and shaking and having trouble getting the keys to unlock it."

He happened to look up just in time to see the suspects' car heading past the fire department down the road.

"Finally, I got in my car and I saw what I thought was their vehicle going down the river road. I followed them to make sure. When I saw it was them, I backed off a little."

Williams said he had no notion of confronting the robbers again.

"I just wanted to know which way they were going."

After tailing the car for a short distance, Williams said he turned around and went back to the fire station in Pembroke to put Police Chief Jerry Gautier on the trail.

"While I was telling Jerry where they went, he got a call from the deputy saying that he needed assistance up the road," Williams said. "He told me that they would take it from there."

Three suspects - Gary Wayne Barker, Mark Anthony Lilly and Benjamin Lee Lilly - were apprehended and arrested a short time later.

This is Williams' first experience with robbery since his business opened in 1953.

"I had a rip-off one time but never a robbery," he said. "I didn't get scared or nervous until it was all over with. You just don't know how you're going to react."

Williams said his wife, Mary Lois, was angry when he got home around midnight after the robbery.

"Well, she wasn't really mad but she was upset because I hadn't called," he said. "She had already heard about it."

Both Hilton and Williams were back at M&W Market Wednesday, operating as usual.

"I've been taking a little extra blood pressure medicine," Williams admitted. "Maybe I was crazy to do what I did, but I'm just glad we caught 'em."

LENGTH: Medium:   88 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ALAN KIM/Staff. As owner W.E. "Bill" Williams listens,  
          M&W Market employee Mona Hilton shows how one of the suspects pulled
          up his shirt and produced a gun when asked to show proof of age for 
          a cigarette purchase.
KEYWORDS: FATALITY    BENJAMIN LILLY