Anchorage jury acquits 67-year-old man of robbery

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- An Anchorage jury has acquitted a 67-year-old man charged with driving the getaway car in a robbery last fall.

After deliberating for about two hours Monday, jurors found Morris Stewart not guilty of armed robbery but guilty of felony eluding.

Stewart said he was sitting in his car outside a Carrs market in South Anchorage on Nov. 8, waiting for a friend who said she needed to get some chicken. Stewart said he panicked when the friend, Benita Henry, rushed out and told him to get going because she had just robbed the store.

Already in violation of probation on a drunken driving charge, Stewart took off with Henry in the car. Soon after, the pair was arrested after a slow-speed pursuit by police.

Henry, 34, pleaded to first-degree robbery earlier this month and faces a probable 15 years in prison.