Man charged in 2019 Okatie gas station robbery and car theft in Bluffton
A man was charged with robbing an Enmark gas station in Okatie and stealing a car in Bluffton, both in 2019, after his arrest in Savannah, police reports show.
Melvin Cochran Jr., 40, of Port Wentworth was charged with armed robbery by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and grand larceny by the Bluffton Police Department on Monday.
Cochran was arrested by the Savannah Police Department on June 25 on warrants from the Sheriff’s Office and Bluffton police. After being jailed for months at the Chatham County Detention Center, Cochran was extradited to the Beaufort County Detention Center on Monday.
On Sept. 29, 2019, Cochran approached the cashier at the Enmark gas station in Okatie and asked to buy Newport cigarettes, according to a police report.
Before paying, he told the cashier to “calmly take the money out of the register.” A Sheriff’s Office release said Cochran told the cashier he had a handgun.
Bluffton police separately accuse of Cochran of stealing an acquaintance’s Subaru on Sept. 21, 2019. The agency secured a warrant for his arrest in October, according to Capt. Joe Babkiewicz.
He also faced a slew of charges from Savannah Police, where he was accused of assaulting a police officer during the line of duty and possession of crack in February 2019, according to a report from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
The report listed Cochran as homeless when he was booked into the Chatham County Detention Center in June.
He is being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center on two bonds totaling $70,000, court records show.
A conviction of armed robbery, a felony, carries a minimum of 10 years in prison in South Carolina. Grand larceny, also a felony, carries up to a 10-year sentence.
