Two men with convictions in Rutherford County have been arrested in Nashville for their roles allegedly played in the attack of a store clerk with a crowbar.

Convicted robber, rapist and burglar Skipper Kephart, who received a four-year robbery sentence just last year, is now jailed for Sunday evening’s pry bar attack on a Murfreesboro Pike convenience store clerk.

Kephart, 47, is charged with especially aggravated robbery and auto theft.  He was convicted of robbery in Nashville in February 2011, rape in Wilson County in 1983, auto burglary in Nashville in 1983, and felony theft in Rutherford County in 2009.

At 5:30 p.m. Sunday, a robber, subsequently identified as Kephart, entered the MAPCO store at 553 Murfreesboro Pike armed with a pry bar.  The suspect raised the weapon over his head and demanded money from the 62-year-old clerk.  A struggle ensued and the clerk was struck on the head with the pry bar, lost consciousness and fell to the floor.  The robber tried unsuccessfully to forcibly open the cash register.  He then dragged the clerk to the register and demanded that it be opened.  The clerk was still dazed from his head wound, prompting the suspect to steal the entire cash register.  The robber fled to the McDonald’s restaurant across the street and got into a red Ford Ranger pickup truck being driven by another man.

At midnight, South Precinct Officer Will Amundson stopped a red Ford Ranger pickup truck in the 3000 block of Nolensville Pike for traveling without its headlights on.  A check showed the vehicle had been reported stolen.  The three persons inside the truck were ordered out.  Officers at the scene alertly noticed that Kephart matched the description of the MAPCO robber from several hours earlier.  Also in plain view inside the truck was a pry bar.

Kephart refused to be interviewed by detectives.  Tony M. Bass, 43, admitted to driving Skipper away from the McDonald’s.  He, too, is charged with especially aggravated robbery and auto theft.  The third person in the truck, Angelique Carr, 19, is charged with auto theft.

Kephart is being held in lieu of $150,000 bond.  Bass, who has convictions for aggravated burglary and multiple forgery counts out of Rutherford County, is being held in lieu of $65,000 bond.  Carr is being held in lieu of $10,000 bond.