NORRISTOWN >> A West Pottsgrove teenager said he “just wanted to try to be cool” when he participated with another man in the gunpoint robbery of several people inside a township residence in order to obtain marijuana.
“It was ignorance on my part. It’s what people talk about. It’s in the music. I just wanted to try to be cool,” Carlton Lamont Gillis III told prosecutors on Monday when he pleaded guilty to felony charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the 9:30 p.m. Oct. 5, 2016, incident at a home along Dogwood Lane in the township.
Gillis, 19, who listed addresses in the 100 block of Berks Street and in the first block of Pulaski Street in West Pottsgrove, admitted that he was an accomplice of Tyrone Jeffcoat-Parker during the robbery.
“I was scared. It’s not something I’d done before. I didn’t know how to remove myself from the situation. I didn’t know how to back out,” Gillis said as he was questioned extensively by Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Richard Bradbury Jr.
Gillis, who pleaded guilty shortly before his trial was to begin before Judge Steven T. O’Neill, testified that on the evening of the incident he spent several hours at a local church contemplating his involvement.
“I sat at church. I felt that’s where I should go,” said Gillis, claiming Jeffcoat-Parker gave him six grams of marijuana for his role in the robbery.
Gillis, who was 18 at the time of the robbery, implied Jeffcoat-Parker controlled the situation and that when Jeffcoat-Parker asked him for a BB gun he gave it to him.
“I didn’t want anybody to get hurt or assaulted. I just wanted the marijuana,” Gillis claimed.
Gillis, who is represented by defense lawyer Evan J. Kelly, is expected to be a witness against Jeffcoat-Parker, who began selecting a jury on Monday for his trial on robbery-related charges in connection with the incident. O’Neill signed an order telling county jail officials to separate Gillis and Jeffcoat-Parker while they are each being held at the county jail.
O’Neill deferred sentencing Gillis until a later date and ordered court officials to complete drug and alcohol evaluations of Gillis in preparation for sentencing. Gillis, who has no deals with prosecutors regarding his potential sentence, faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.
Jeffcoat-Parker, 21, of the 1200 block of Spring Hill Drive, Pottstown, met privately with his parents before rejecting a plea agreement offer from prosecutors. That offer, according to testimony, would have been a sentence of 40 months to 10 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to robbery.
Jeffcoat-Parker told the judge he wants a jury trial. That trial is expected to last several days.
An investigation began when West Pottsgrove police were dispatched to the Dogwood Lane residence for a reported home invasion robbery with a firearm. When police arrived, they spoke with a victim who indicated that he had been at his home with three of his friends at around 9:30 p.m. when they heard a knock at the sliding glass rear door and observed another friend at the door.
The victim told police that when he unlocked the door, his friend was pushed into the home by Jeffcoat- Parker. At the time, Jeffcoat-Parker was holding a black handgun to the back of the victim’s friend and was accompanied by Gillis.
Once inside, Jeffcoat-Parker demanded money and other items from the victim while pointing the gun at him, according to the criminal complaint filed by West Pottsgrove Police Officer Robert Stoudt III.
Jeffcoat-Parker then grabbed the victim’s backpack which contained between $1,300 and $1,500, police said. The victim said he also had two bags of marijuana sitting on a table that Jeffcoat-Parker grabbed and placed in the backpack.
Jeffcoat-Parker also took money from one of the other men inside the residence, according to the arrest affidavit.
“During the incident (the victim) said he was afraid for his life and the lives of everyone else in his house, including his mother, father and brother that were in another room at the time,” Stoudt alleged.
Jeffcoat-Parker and Gillis were in the home for approximately 5 minutes before fleeing out a back door. The victim stated they chased the pair but eventually lost sight of them.
When police caught up to Jeffcoat-Parker they found him possessing $1,172 in his sock. The money was folded in half by a blue rubber band, the same manner that the victims described it when it was stolen.
