Man pleads not guilty to stealing car at knifepoint in Stevens Point Target parking lot
STEVENS POINT – A 52-year-old Tennessee man pleaded not guilty Monday to threatening to stab a woman April 11 and stealing her car.
William P. Gentry, of Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, faces charges of armed robbery with use of force and armed carjacking. His attorney, Anne Renc, waived Gentry's right to a preliminary hearing, in which Portage County District Attorney Louis Molepske Jr. would have had to present enough evidence to show Gentry probably committed the crime.
Portage County Circuit Judge Thomas Eagon ordered the case to move forward and scheduled Gentry's next hearing for June 13. Gentry is being held pending a $250,000 cash bail.
According to the criminal complaint, at 6:58 p.m. April 11, a 26-year-old Portage County woman reported she was in the parking lot at Target, 5300 U.S. 10 E., Stevens Point, when a man came up to her as she got out of her car.
The woman said the man grabbed her arm and said, "Give me your keys or I'll stab you." The woman said she did not see a knife.
The man grabbed the keys from the woman's hand and took her car, according to police. The woman was not hurt.
A witness said she saw the man sitting on the bench outside of Target. She said the man was sitting on the bench for the 20 minutes she was in the store. The woman said she was sitting in her vehicle when she saw the robbery take place, according to the complaint.
Police looked at surveillance video from the store and saw the man hanging around the parking lot and the robbery take place, according to the complaint. The next day, a caller reported a similar man had been hanging out at a service station. Police looked at video from the station and believed it was the same man, according to the complaint.
An employee at the service station said the man said he was from Chattanooga, Tennessee, he was staying at a hotel, his truck had broken down and he was waiting for his son to pick him up, according to the complaint.
Police went to the hotel and were able to identify Gentry from information the hotel got from his driver's license when he checked in with a woman, according to the complaint.
The hotel employee said Gentry and the woman were yelling the morning of April 11 and the woman was bleeding from her left ear, according to the complaint. The woman told the employee she was taking a plane out of the area, according to the complaint.
The Springfield Police Department in Missouri found the stolen vehicle and Gentry at a motel in Springfield about two days later, according to the Stevens Point Police Department.
If convicted, Gentry faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision on each of the two counts.
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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KMadden715, Instagram at @kmadden715 or Facebook at facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Man pleads not guilty to stealing car at Stevens Point Target
