For the second time in his life, an Orangeburg man will be sent to prison on a robbery charge, this time for 15 years.

Don Demetrius Martin, 38, of 623 Mimosa St., pleaded guilty this week to one count of armed robbery and one count of attempted strong-arm robbery.

Circuit Court Judge James Williams sentenced Martin to 15 years on each count, to be served at the same time.

Martin had served 8.5 years for a 1996 armed robbery. He had been out of jail for about eight months when the Aug. 24, 2005 robbery occurred.

On that date, Martin entered DeJa Vu in the Orangeburg Mall at about 5:05 p.m. and, after browsing about the shop, demanded money from the register.

When the clerk told Martin she did not have a key to open the register, he stated he “had a knife and would use it,” according to an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety report.

Martin then ran at two female shoppers in the store, stating that he would stab one of them if she didn’t hand over her purse, according to the report. He then snatched the woman’s purse and ran out of the store, speeding away in a burgundy GMC truck.

A man in the parking lot, however, wrote down the truck’s tag number, and a female motorist passing through followed the truck. The female motorist lost sight of the truck on Dantzler Street “due to his high speeds,” the report states.

A GMC was found abandoned about 25 minutes later at a location behind the Riverside Drive Bi-Lo. The license plate matched the number the passerby in the parking lot gave police.

Inside the truck, police found a driver’s license. The name on the license was Don Demetrius Martin.

Nearby, police found a purse, which ultimately proved to belong to the customer who was robbed inside the business.

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