The ice cream truck driver who allegedly kidnapped a Clinton girl in July had a pistol and threatened to shoot the girl if she didn’t get into his vehicle, according to a court affidavit.
Troy Allen Stansberry, 29, of Knoxville, took the 15-year-old girl, who had been reported as missing, from a Clinton neighborhood to a Budget Host Inn in Caryville “for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity,” according to the affidavit and the Clinton Police Department.
The girl, who is not being publicly identified, told police that she entered the Pela Ice Cream truck after Stansberry showed her the pistol and threatened to shoot her if she did not get in, according to the affidavit. The girl did not want to make Stansberry mad, so she got into the vehicle, said the affidavit, which was filed by Clinton Police Department Sergeant Scott Gregory.
Stansberry has been charged with aggravated kidnapping. Stansberry took the girl without consent or permission, the affidavit said.
Clinton police officers investigating the report of the missing girl on July 23 found that she had been observed entering the passenger side of the ice cream truck, and the truck then left the neighborhood, according to the affidavit. The truck was found abandoned several hours later at the Budget Host Inn in Caryville.
The owner of the ice cream company contacted the Clinton Police Department and said his employee, Stansberry, had not returned to the business with the ice cream truck, the CPD said. Stansberry was terminated from his employment when he returned to the business later that evening, the CPD said.
The girl was located at the Caryville motel several hours later by the Campbell County Sheriff’s Department and released to her family, the CPD said.
The Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force and the United States Marshals Great Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force helped the Clinton Police Department find Stansberry, and he was arrested August 27, the CPD said.
Bond for Stansberry has been set at $50,000. He remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on Monday morning. He is to wear an electronic positioning monitor and not contact the juvenile victim if he is released on bond, according to an order filed by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Don Layton on August 28.
A psychiatric examination was ordered for Stansberry on Tuesday. That examination at Ridgeview Psychiatric Hospital is to evaluate Stansberry’s competency to stand trial, his mental capacity at the time of the alleged crime, his ability to understand his conduct, and an IQ test, according to an order signed by Layton.
Public defender Leslie Hunt is representing Stansberry, whose next court date is September 23.
Leave a Reply