Opinion ID: 1405904
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 7-Eleven Robbery-homicide.

Text: About 4 a.m. on January 15, 1981, Riverside police received a report that the 7-Eleven store on Indiana Street was deserted. Investigating officers found a bullet hole in the store window. With the help of the owner it was determined that $33 had been taken from one of the cash registers and that several hats and hatbands were missing. Three and one-half hours after the initial report, a local citizen found a body in a nearby orange grove and reported his finding to police at the 7-Eleven store. Investigators found the body, later identified as the store's night clerk Dickie Gibson, lying on its back in the dirt. Detective Callow noticed a gunshot wound in the victim's forehead, a slight wound on the small finger of his right hand, and abrasions on his knees. There were five identifiable footprints at the scene, including an impression left by a flat-soled left shoe near the victim's head and several impressions with a diamond pattern located four feet from the body, near its feet. The autopsy showed the victim was killed by a bullet wound above the right ear, which was probably fired from a .22-caliber gun from a distance of more than 16 inches. There were also gunshot wounds to the fingers of the right hand. The shot to the forehead had not penetrated the skull and was not the cause of death, but the nature of the wound indicated it had been inflicted from close range, probably six to twelve inches. The abrasions on the hands and on the knees could have been caused by a hard dirt or asphalt surface. Death probably occurred between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on January 15. The victim's brother testified that everything had appeared normal when he stopped by the store for a visit between 1 and 1:40 a.m.