robbery Archives - Oak Ridge Today

Man, woman receive sentences of 3-5 years in robbery pleas

Posted at 2:27 am April 10, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Lindsay Elaine Pressley

A Powell woman received a five-year sentence and a Knoxville man received a three-year sentence when they pleaded guilty to a robbery in Claxton that authorities said started with an advertisement for escort services posted on backpage.com.

Lindsay Elaine Pressley, 29, entered her plea agreement in Anderson County Criminal and Circuit Court in Clinton on October 29.

Her co-defendant, Richard Paul Pressley, 32, entered his plea agreement last week, on Tuesday, April 2.

As part of their plea deals, an aggravated robbery charge filed against both Pressleys was reduced to robbery. Their charges of especially aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon were reduced to kidnapping. And charges of conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping were reduced to conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping. Charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery remained unchanged. All four charges are felony charges.

In each case, the sentences for the individual charges run concurrently, or at the same time.

[Read more…]

Clinton store clerk, accomplice arrested after robbery reported

Posted at 3:03 pm February 11, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image by Clinton Police Department

Clinton Police Department officers arrested a Lee’s Travel Center clerk and another man in connection with the report of an aggravated robbery of the convenience store on February 5, the CPD said in a post published on Facebook.

Reports said Justin Pennington was working at the store at 2233 North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard in Clinton when a masked man pulled out a knife and told him to open the cash register or he would stab him, the CPD said.

Clinton Police Department Investigator Sergeant Scott Gregory, after reviewing store surveillance and gathering more information, discovered that the masked man, who was identified as Jacob T. Maiden, took money from the cash register and then placed two bags of suspected narcotics on the counter and left the scene, the CPD said. [Read more…]

Exclusive: Two plead guilty in robbery that ends with shooting

Posted at 2:38 pm July 11, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Police Department investigates a shooting on East Holston Lane at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

CLINTON—An Oak Ridge man and woman pleaded guilty on Monday to their roles in a robbery that started as a drug deal set up through social media and ended with a shooting that injured one person.

The plea agreements for the two defendants, Nicole Marie Brewer, 21, and Nicholas Rashad Strickland, 27, were entered in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday. The robbery and shooting were reported on East Holston Lane in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, November 15, 2016.

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Anderson County man indicted on carjacking, assault charges

Posted at 9:11 pm May 13, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Justin Wade Welch

An Anderson County man who allegedly took two cars by force and tried to take another in Clinton in March 2017 has been indicted on carjacking and assault charges by the Anderson County Grand Jury.

Justin Wade Welch, 31, was charged in an eight-count indictment filed April 3. At the time of the indictment, he had been jailed at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton since March 30, 2017, the date of the alleged incident.

The charges against Welch include three counts of carjacking and one count each of attempted carjacking, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (a vehicle), evading arrest, driving on a suspended or revoked license, and resisting a stop, search, or arrest involving a weapon (a vehicle).

Charges against Welch had been waived to the Grand Jury in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on September 6.

He pleaded not guilty to the eight indicted charges in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on April 30. [Read more…]

Attempted carjacking charge added in crash that injured officer

Posted at 11:14 am April 13, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Khristoff Deshawn Lee

An attempted carjacking charge has been added to the eight charges already filed against a man accused of injuring an Oak Ridge officer when he fled from police and crashed on South Illinois Avenue last week.

After the five-vehicle crash on Wednesday, April 4, Khristoff Deshawn Lee, 24, of Oak Ridge, was charged with three felony counts of aggravated assault by motor vehicle, two felony counts of reckless endangerment, one felony count of aggravated domestic assault, and one misdemeanor count of evading arrest and another misdemeanor count of resisting, stop, halt, and frisk.

The attempted carjacking charge, a Class C felony, was added Friday, April 6, according to Anderson County court records.

An affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge said Lee, who was reported to be a fugitive, tried to force his way into two different vehicles in the Panera Bread parking lot as he fled from police on foot after the April 4 crash. [Read more…]

Three arrested after alleged robbery

Posted at 9:39 pm April 9, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Police Department arrested three people at Staples on Monday, April 9, 2018, in connection with an alleged robbery at an Oak Ridge residence. (Photo by Oak Ridge Police Department)

The Oak Ridge Police Department arrested three people on Monday, April 9, in connection with an alleged robbery at an Oak Ridge residence, authorities said.

Around 5 p.m., Joshua Young, 37, of Oak Ridge, and Benjamin Davis, 27, of Powell, allegedly forced their way into the home of the victim on East Tennessee Avenue, the ORPD said. The victim said that a friend had sold a game console to Davis and that Davis later returned with Young. The victim told officers that Davis claimed the console he purchased was broken and that the victim needed to return his money or he was taking something of equal value, the ORPD said.

The victim said Young and Davis forced him to sit on the couch while they took a tablet computer and an undetermined amount of cash before leaving his residence, officers said. The victim stated that he observed Young and Davis get into a vehicle driven by a woman who was later identified as Hannah Phillips, 27, of Oliver Springs, the ORPD said. [Read more…]

Officer injured in crash released from hospital

Posted at 2:30 am April 7, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

An Oak Ridge Police Department officer was injured in a crash and children were taken to the hospital after a fugitive crashed a car as he fled from police on Wednesday, April 5, 2018, authorities said. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Police Department)

The Oak Ridge Police Department officer injured in a crash allegedly caused by a fugitive who was fleeing from police on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, has been released from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, a spokesperson said Friday. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Police Department)

Note: This story was last updated at 9:55 a.m.

The officer injured in a crash allegedly caused by a fugitive who was fleeing from police on Wednesday has been released from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, a spokesperson confirmed Friday.

Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Nathan Gibson was injured while trying to make a traffic stop and serve a warrant on Khristoff Deshawn Lee, 24, of Oak Ridge, on South Illinois Avenue at about 12:37 p.m. Wednesday, according to affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.

Gibson has been discharged, UT Medical Center spokesperson Susan Wyatt said Friday afternoon. No information is available on his present condition.

It’s not clear what charges might have been in the warrant Gibson was trying to serve on Lee on Wednesday, but a writ of criminal capias had been issued for Lee after he failed to appear at a plea agreement hearing on attempted first-degree murder and robbery charges, among other pending charges, in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on August 14. [Read more…]

Two charged in alleged robbery that started with car sale

Posted at 6:56 pm March 6, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Michael Rodney Sharp

Two people have been charged in an alleged robbery that started with a car sale, court records said.

The robbery was reported to have occurred on Bolin Road on the west side of Rocky Top on Thursday, February 22.

The two people charged with aggravated robbery in the case are Michael Rodney Sharp, 50, and Stephanie Jean Hoskins, 29, who both live on Bolin Road, according to Anderson County jail records.

The victim reported going to Bolin Road to buy a car from Sharp, according to affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Gregory Stanley.

While she was talking to Sharp, the victim said, Hoskins hit her in the back of the head with a stick, knocking her unconscious, according to the affidavits. The victim said she was unconscious for about five minutes. [Read more…]

Claxton woman indicted in alleged backpage.com robbery

Posted at 11:53 pm December 30, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

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. [Read more…]

Kidnapping, assault charges sent to grand jury in Hibachi Burger robbery

Posted at 4:11 pm December 10, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Dominique Leshawn Gordon

Sixteen assault and kidnapping charges in a robbery reported at gunpoint at Hibachi Burger in Oak Ridge in January were sent to a grand jury on Tuesday.

An aggravated robbery charge was dismissed due to a technical issue with a warrant, but that charge is expected to also be considered by the Anderson County Grand Jury. An indictment by the grand jury would move the case from Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge, where it has been, to Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton.

The armed robbery was reported at about 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, January 10, at the Hibachi Burger restaurant, which is in Grove Center.

The defendant, Dominique Leshawn Gordon, 22, allegedly entered Hibachi Burger while displaying a firearm, and he demanded money from the register while showing the gun to several employees and customers, “placing them in fear of serious bodily injury,” according to affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.

After getting the money, Gordon fled on foot, but he was caught a short time later by Oak Ridge Police Department patrol officers, the affidavits said. Officers who searched him after his arrest found the money that had been taken from the restaurant, according to the affidavits, which were filed by ORPD Detective A. Marvell Moore. [Read more…]

Police catch man six minutes after robbery reported at Arby’s

Posted at 12:48 pm December 8, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Tyler Gilmore

The Oak Ridge Police Department said it caught a suspect within six minutes of a robbery being reported at the Arby’s restaurant on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge on Thursday afternoon.

The strong armed robbery was reported at 2:10 p.m. Thursday at the restaurant, which is at 114 South Illinois Avenue.

“Officers saturated the area and apprehended the suspect within six minutes of the initial call,” the Oak Ridge Police Department said.

“Police learned that the suspect forcibly took a patron’s wallet as he was entering the restaurant,” the ORPD said. “The suspect fled on foot into a nearby neighborhood. Once police captured the suspect, they were able to recover the stolen wallet containing $13.00 in cash. No injuries were reported.” [Read more…]

ORPD investigating robbery reported at Cash Company

Posted at 1:15 pm December 5, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Police Department is investigating a robbery reported at The Cash Company in west Oak Ridge on Friday afternoon, Dec. 1, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Oak Ridge Police Department is investigating a robbery reported at The Cash Company in west Oak Ridge on Friday afternoon.

The robbery was reported at about 2:47 p.m. Friday at the business, which is at 1966 Oak Ridge Turnpike, the ORPD said.

“Officers were advised that a single suspect entered the business with a semiautomatic handgun and demanded money,” the Police Department said in a statement. “The suspect was described as a Caucasian male wearing a dark-colored ski jacket and a light-colored ski mask. The suspect showed the weapon to an employee, took an undisclosed amount of cash, and fled west on foot.” [Read more…]