A Criminal Court case against a Hampton man charged with in connection with an alleged armed robbery has been remanded back to the lower court for a preliminary hearing.

Deputies with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Michael Charles Miller, 27, 304 Dennis Cove Road, Hampton, in November 2015 and charged him with aggravated assault, aggravated robbery (with a weapon), and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The charges against Miller were bound over from General Sessions Court to a Carter County Grand Jury on Jan. 5, 2016. The Grand Jury handed down an indictment against Miller bearing the same charges in March 2016.

In June of this year, attorney Nikki Himebaugh, who was appointed to represent Miller, petitioned the Criminal Court to remand the case back to General Sessions Court for a preliminary hearing “should the State wish to proceed with prosecution or for appropriate disposition,” according to court documents.

A search of court records for General Sessions Court on Jan. 5. 2016 shows Miller had another case pending on the Sessions Court docket that day on a charge of criminal impersonation. A capias was issued in that case indicating Miller was not present in court on the day the aggravated robbery case was bound over to the Grand Jury without a preliminary hearing.

Criminal Court Judge Stacy Street granted Himebaugh’s petition and signed an order remanding the case back to General Sessions Court for a preliminary hearing.

In Criminal Court on Monday, Himebaugh informed the Court that the preliminary hearing had been scheduled to take place on August 4 before Judge Keith Bowers Jr. Street updated his signed order with the court date for the hearing.

The charges against Miller stem from an investigation by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office into the report of an armed robbery which allegedly occurred on Oct. 25, 2015.

The alleged victim in the case told officers she went to Miller’s home on Dennis Cove Road to purchase prescription medication from him and admitted to officers she had purchased medication from him on prior occasions.

“(The woman) wrote in her statement that Mr. Miller got into her vehicle, pulled a gun on her, told her to ‘give him everything,’ and that during the course of the robbery Mr. Miller hit her in the face with his pistol,’” said CCSO Investigator Stacy McKinney in the affidavit of complaint against Miller.

According to court documents, the woman told officers an unidentified male assisted Miller in the robbery by opening the door to her car and holding a gun to her head. The woman reported the two men took her cell phone and her purse with its contents.