Man found guilty in two Slidell robberies

A New Orleans man who robbed two Slidell businesses, including a Burger King where he locked employees inside a cooler, was found guilty of armed robbery late last week.

Eric Bridges, 33, was found guilty on two counts of the felony charge that carries 10 to 99 years in jail. Six years earlier he and Randy “Slim” Johnson, 25, robbed Corporate Cleaners, 1320 Corporate Square Blvd., on Aug. 9, 2002, and Burger King, 1638 Gause Blvd., on Aug. 11, 2002.

Judge William Burris scheduled sentencing for Feb. 26. Johnson, meanwhile, is serving four years after pleading guilty to simple robbery in 2005.

Bridges was arrested and jailed in 2002 for a string of robberies in New Orleans. When those charges were dropped in 2007, he was booked in St. Tammany Parish for the Slidell robberies.

Bridges and Johnson, cruising St. Tammany for businesses to rob, found the dry cleaners’ door ajar. Bridges jumped out of his van, darted inside and pocketed $55, according to police reports.

Two days later, on Aug. 11, 2002, the pair robbed Burger King, masked and armed, one with a .38-caliber handgun. Storming the fast food eatery, they forced at gunpoint two employees into a cooler. A third, a manager, was kept outside to open a safe.

The duo then stole the manager’s van and fled to New Orleans. Once there, on Claiborne Avenue, Bridges wrecked into a police car. Each were arrested that day.