MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons announced Friday that the state Grand Jury for Shelby County had indicted four teenagers accused of committing a violent Valentine’s Day crime spree in Germantown and Memphis.
The Grand Jury indicted Won Pierce, 19, Tommy Brown, 17, and Deandre Clark, 18, each on two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of attempted aggravated robbery, and aggravated assault. A fourth co-defendant, Preston Williams, 19, was indicted for aggravated robbery. The four defendants, all students at East High School, are charged with committing a series of assaults and armed robberies on February 14 throughout Germantown and Memphis.
In the first incident, a victim was attacked and beaten in the parking lot of a Germantown shopping center at 7730 Poplar Avenue. A second victim, a teacher at Germantown High School, was robbed later that morning at gunpoint while walking out of the school and to her vehicle.
Later that afternoon, a third victim was robbed at gunpoint at the Oak Court Mall. Then, in a fourth incident, a 70-year-old woman, who walks with a cane, was knocked down and dragged by her purse strap in the parking lot of the Hickory Ridge Mall.
In March, at the request of the D.A.’s Office, a juvenile court referee transferred Brown and Clark (who was 17 at the time) to criminal court to be prosecuted as adults. Both Brown and Clark are being held in the Shelby County Jail on $50,000 bonds. Williams and Pierce are out of jail on $50,000 bonds.
It is the policy of the District Attorney’s Office to request that juveniles who are 16 or 17 years old be transferred to Criminal Court if they are charged with committing a violent crime. The D.A.’s Office also carefully reviews cases in which a juvenile under 16 is charged with committing a violent crime to determine if a request to transfer the juvenile is appropriate.
The charge of aggravated robbery is a class B felony, which carries a standard sentence of 8 – 12 years in prison; the charges of attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated assault are both class C felonies, which carry 3 – 6 years.
Aggravated robbery is a charge covered by the D.A.’s “No Deals” policy on violent crimes which applies to juveniles who are prosecuted as adults. Exceptions are made to the policy for legal or ethical reasons. |