Lindsay Elaine Pressley
A Claxton woman has been indicted in an alleged robbery at gunpoint in Claxton in 2016 that authorities said started with an advertisement for escort services posted on backpage.com.
Lindsay Elaine Pressley, 27, was indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on November 7. She was arrested Thursday and remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility on Saturday night, with her bond set at $100,000.
The grand jury indicted Pressley on four charges: aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping.
In July, the grand jury indicted a Knoxville man, Richard Norman Pressley, 31, in the case. He was also charged with aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping using a weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. The Pressleys had been identified as husband and wife in a press release from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department after the alleged robbery and kidnapping in a mobile home on Queen Street in Ben’s Mobile Home Park off Edgemoor Road in Claxton on May 21, 2016.
Affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on May 23, 2016, said the alleged victim, Cody Monroe, traveled from Athens to the address provided in the backpage.com ad. Monroe “made small talk” with the female, later identified as Lindsay Pressley, for about five minutes when a man brandishing a handgun, later identified as Richard Pressley, entered the living room and ordered Monroe onto the ground, according to the affidavits.
Monroe complied, the affidavits said.
“He was then bound with rope, and $600 in cash was taken from him,” according to the affidavits, which were filed by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Corporal Bradley Prewitt.
Richard Pressley
Monroe was put into a back bedroom, but he was able to cut his ropes using a pocket knife and escaped from the trailer through an open window, the affidavits said.
Monroe was able to describe the home, a pickup parked in the driveway, and the male and female suspects as well as the suspects’ handgun, the affidavits said.
He said the female suspect had “offered sexual services from various amounts of money” through text messages, according to the affidavits.
Prewitt said he was able to determine that the alleged crime occurred at the Queen Street home, and that the Pressleys were the likely offenders. Among the factors he cited were the descriptions provided by Monroe, the use of the backpage.com ad, and the method of the crime. Prewitt said he had “numerous recent encounters” with the Pressleys, and during one of those encounters, they had admitted they had been engaged in a conspiracy to lure victims to their home using a backpage.com posting, then rob the victims in a manner similar to the one allegedly used against Monroe.
Monroe was shown recent booking photos of the Pressleys, and he confirmed they were the male and female who robbed and bound him, although he said Lindsay Pressley’s hair was more blonde in the photo.
Deputies arrested the Pressleys at the Queen Street home, and they found Monroe’s description of the home and yard, a fence, and vehicle to be accurate, Prewitt said.
Lindsay Pressley has an arraignment scheduled for January 22 in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton.
Richard Pressley pleaded not guilty during a July 31 arraignment.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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