Mendy Phelps testified to a Roanoke jury that she was nowhere near Z-Mart when the store was robbed and its owner fatally shot.

But the jury didn't buy her claim that she wasn't the woman driving the getaway car. They found her guilty Tuesday afternoon of principal in the second degree to attempted robbery and felony eluding police.

The verdict brought tears and outrage from Phelps' family. Her daughter, Markia Phelps, told the jury, "Y'all have wrongfully convicted her," as she begged them not to sentence her mother harshly.

"I wasn't at the store," Mendy Phelps told the jury tearfully. "My life is in your hands."

The jury recommended a three-year sentence, the minimum possible punishment. Judge William Broadhurst will consider formally imposing the sentence at an Oct. 16 hearing.

Reginald Killingsworth, Phelps' co-defendant, faces charges of attempted robbery and capital murder in the Nov. 9 death of Z-Mart owner Zaid Almajali. During Phelps' trial he was repeatedly identified as Almajali's killer. His trial is scheduled to begin in November, though last month a psychiatrist found him incompetent to assist in his own defense.

Phelps' trial began Monday. She took the stand Tuesday morning, telling the jury that she began seeing Killingsworth after she became estranged from her husband. She had only known Killingsworth, who goes by the name "Black," about three weeks when she drove with him from Deltona, Fla., to introduce him to her family in Roanoke.

The couple had been in Roanoke three days when the robbery happened. Phelps said she was doing laundry at her aunt's house on Clifton Avenue Northwest that evening when Killingsworth asked for the keys to her car. He returned and called for her to come out of the house. Visibly agitated, he tossed her the keys and told her to drive, she said.

When a police car pulled in behind her she planned to pull over, thinking she was getting a ticket for her expired license plates, but Killingsworth pulled a gun on her and ordered her to drive, she said. She cried as she told the jury how terrified she was as she sped through the residential streets at up to 80 mph before crashing at Hanover and Eighth streets.

But a few hours after the wreck, Phelps gave a conflicting account to Roanoke police investigator Jim Owens. She told him she had Killingsworth drop her off at an abandoned house on Crescent Avenue and waited for him to return from the store there.

Assistant Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney John McNeil challenged her over the inconsistencies. He questioned why Phelps wouldn't have told police right away if Killingsworth was holding a gun on her.

"The only duress I would submit she was under was being caught by police," McNeil said during closing arguments.

Phelps' attorney, Patrick Kenney, emphasized that a customer who had seen Phelps' car at the store just before the robbery thought he'd seen a white woman or light-skinned black woman in the driver's seat.

That couldn't be his client, he argued. "She's never going to be mistaken for a white woman. That's just ridiculous."

McNeil argued that given it only took 12 minutes from the time of the 911 call until Killingsworth's and Phelps' arrests, Phelps had to be the woman behind the wheel.