WINDSOR – Forty-two days after they allegedly committed a pair of back-to-back crimes, two Bertie County men were arrested Jan. 9 for armed robbery.

Chief Deputy John Holley of the Bertie Sheriff’s Office reported that Horace White Jr., 25 of 736 Cremo Road, Colerain, and 41-year-old Robert Dwight Wilson of 635 Farless Road, Merry Hill have each been charged with two felony counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Both men were placed in the Bertie-Martin Regional Jail under a $60,000 cash bond. They made their first appearance in court on Wednesday where their probable cause hearings were scheduled for Jan. 31.

Holley said the two were charged with the Nov. 28 armed robbery of Clyde’s Auto on Perrytown Road. One day later (Nov. 29), the two men allegedly robbed Earl Leary at his Merry Hill residence. There, Holley said the two suspects hid behind a vehicle in Leary’s yard and approached the victim as he was leaving for work.

In the Leary robbery, the suspects demanded money, but after being unable to locate Leary’s cash, they instead stole his vehicle. That vehicle was discovered abandoned a short time later on Black Rock Road. A CD player in the vehicle was missing.

Holley said a handgun was used in both robberies.