By John Howell
One of the three people charged in the September 24 armed robbery of a pizza delivery driver may have been celebrating his birthday.

DeKedrick S. Danner, 223 Cotton Plant Road, Batesville, turned 17 that day.

Another suspect, James Demarius Barber, 475 Hadorn Road, Batesville, would turn 17 within a week of his arrest.

But the suspect who is alleged to have held a pistol to the delivery driver’s head during the robbery, Cordarius H. Strong, 107 Cedar Crest Drive, Batesville was five months shy of his 14th birthday.

All three have been charged as adults with armed robbery.

Sheriff Dennis Darby said the three were arrested and charged shortly after a delivery driver for Batesville’s Dominos Pizza was robbed at gunpoint when he attempted to make a delivery to an address on Cotton Plant Road.

Deputy Sheriff Terry Smith said that the caller who placed the pizza order first gave the delivery address where one of the suspects lived. When they realized that may have been a mistake, they called back and changed the delivery address to one next door.

When the driver arrived, he got no answer to his knocking on the door at the second address. When he returned to his vehicle, he found himself facing the trio of robbers.

The robbers took four pizzas and $12 cash from the driver. During the investigation, the pistol alleged to have been used in the robbery was recovered, Smith said.

The deputy said that during their interviews with the driver immediately following his encounter, “he was really pretty calm.”