DRUG use, mental illness, armed robberies, jail, parole, repeat.
At 32, prolific armed robber Jerrymee Maine Kelly is well past being institutionalised and has spent most of his adult life, as well as much of his teenage years, in jail or institutions.
And on Friday, Kelly added another conviction for armed robbery to his extensive criminal record and another maximum five years in jail. It's a tragic case; an Indigenous man who was using heroin intravenously since childhood, who grew up among domestic violence, who ran away from home and lived on the streets from the age of 6, who was placed into foster care, expelled from school, never had a job, who turned to crime, gave into drugs and went to jail.
And who has been unable to break the cycle ever since.
Kelly, then 31, had, according to prosecutors, 17 convictions for robbery to his name when he walked into the Enhance service station in York Street, Teralba about 6.45am on January 2 this year.
He pulled out a 15-centimetre knife, confronted the female attendant in the back room, pointed the knife at her chest and said: "Go to the till, I want the f---ing money."
After an argument about how much cash and cigarettes he was going to get, Kelly picked up the woman's bag and began running for the exit. But the woman, not wanting to lose an item her daughter had bought for her, gave chase and recovered it. He was arrested 30 minutes later about 600 metres away.
Kelly was released on parole in August, 2019, after serving two years and nine months for an armed robbery at a store at Kempsey.
Kelly had committed that robbery six weeks after he finished serving nearly eight years in jail for five armed robberies at North Lambton, New Lambton, Bulahdelah and Mayfield in 2008.
