Alleged robber said ‘We’ll bring your car right back’ as he drove off, witness says

On a hot summer night two years ago, Keambre Bryant loaned his phone to a man who needed to make a call.

Then, with the nod of the man’s head, another man pointed a gun at Bryant and said “give it up.”

“I thought I was going to get shot,” Bryant, 22, testified Thursday during the trial for Terence Earl Biggers Jr., 28, of Columbus.

Bibb County jurors deliberated about an hour before finding Biggers guilty of armed robbery.

Because of his two prior felony convictions — aggravated assault in Columbus and theft by receiving in Upson County — Biggers received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bryant said he’d driven his 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo to Hidden Lakes Apartments, off Mercer University Drive in Macon, to visit his girlfriend on June 21, 2015.

While in the parking lot about 11 p.m., he was approached by “two dudes.” One of them asked to use his smartphone to try to get a ride home.

He unlocked his phone and handed it to the man. The phone locked again, and he unlocked it and gave it back to the man.

That’s when Bryant contends Biggers nodded his head and the other man pulled out a gun.

Bryant said he dropped his car keys. Biggers picked them up and got into the Monte Carlo’s driver seat. The gunman got into the front passenger seat.

Biggers warned Bryant not to call the police and said “we’ll bring your car right back,” Bryant testified.

“I thought I was going to get shot,” he said.

About 90 minutes later, an Upson County sheriff’s deputy on patrol saw a blue Monte Carlo run a stop sign, prosecutor John Regan told jurors in his opening statement.

The driver of the car wouldn’t stop, and the deputy gave chase until it crashed.

Two men ran away from the crash, but authorities found Biggers’ driver’s license and Bryant’s phone inside the car.

Bryant later identified Biggers from a police line-up, Regan said.

Tamika Fluker, Biggers’ lawyer, told jurors in her closing argument that there’s no indication as to what her client’s nod might have meant.

Biggers testified that his phone battery died, and he called his sister using Bryant’s phone, Fluker said.

While talking with his sister, he heard someone say “give it up,” she said.

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Alleged robber said ‘We’ll bring your car right back’ as he drove off, witness says."