CCW holder stops armed robbery.

WALTERBORO — A pair of Smoaks men who tried to rob a woman stranded along Interstate 95 but found themselves on the other side of an Iraq War veteran’s gun now face decades in prison.

A jury convicted 22-year-old Antwan McMillan and 20-year-old David Jakes in circuit court Thursday of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, three counts of attempted armed robbery and three counts of first-degree assault and battery in the 2010 botched highway robbery in which the serviceman shot Jakes.

A judge sentenced McMillan to 30 years in prison and Jakes to 35 years. The case against a third man, 21-year-old James Davis, is pending.

An Army specialist, his wife and mother-in-law were heading south in two vehicles on I-95 one night in June 2010, when one of their vehicles had mechanical problems.

The solider, just back from the Middle East, began working on the vehicle, when another car with three men inside pulled up.

Jakes pointed a gun at the man’s mother-in-law and demanded money, officials said, but the soldier popped up with his own gun and ordered the men to leave. When the robber turned to point his gun at the veteran, the soldier shot Jakes three times, according to authorities.

McMillan fired a gun from inside the other car, and Jakes crawled back to it.

The men drove off, but sheriff’s investigators found Jakes at a local hospital and arrested McMillan and Davis later that week. McMillan had been out on bail on a murder charge from a November 2009 shooting in the Johnsonville area of Colleton County.

Colleton County deputies determined that the robber’s pistol had been stolen and that the soldier had a valid concealed weapons permit.

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/09/03/1956839/two-men-found-guilty-of-attempted.html#ixzz1XSoosHjG