Local

Men charged with killing man have first appearance Friday

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two men charged with robbing and killing a 65-year-old south Charlotte man are scheduled to make their first court appearances Friday.

Eyewitness News has learned one of them has made many of those appearances before.

Officers arrested Stacey Brown, 20, and Roderick Crawford, 21, on Wednesday night.

They are charged with robbing and killing Robert Heym, who was attacked on Conway Avenue, near South Boulevard, on his way home from work.

Crawford and Brown are also charged with a robbery on West Boulevard earlier in the week.

Eyewitness News checked court records and found that Brown had been charged with three other robberies since 2008 and that the charges were dismissed in each case.

In two of those cases from 2011 prosecutors cited problems with the photo lineups that victims had used to identify Brown.

The new charges include murder and the friends of the man Brown and Crawford are charged with killing say it doesn't make sense.

"The man didn't deserve it ... it was senseless!  He bothers nobody!" said Janice Lee, who lives next door.

"Bob would've given them whatever they asked for. I can't imagine how you could look somebody in the eye, put a gun to their face and just shoot somebody in the face," said Mike Ross, whose mother had helped Heym move to Charlotte from New York in 2004.

Both said the charges help start the healing.

"Good!  Good…  Bob has justice,” Lee said.