Man Pleads Guilty To First-Degree Robbery

• {Charleston, West Virginia}...Friday, 58 year old John Columbus Beane pleaded guilty to two charges of first-degree robbery after attempting to rob Linda's Sports Bar and Husson's Pizza in Sissonville on November 7, 2011, using a .410 shotgun. The attempt at Husson's ended after the employees fled, and Beane could not open the store's electronic cash register. At Linda's, patrons wrestled the weapon from him, dragged him outside to the parking lot and beat him with the shotgun until it broke apart while they waited for police to arrive. Beane told Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom that he was drunk when he attempted the robberies, and he did not remember many of the details. Beane faces a minimum of 20 years in prison if Judge Bloom decides to run the two charges consecutively.