Two students arrested

Two GCSU freshmen were arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges of armed robbery. Justin McTiernan, 19, and David Jenkins, 18, allegedly devised and carried out a plan that resulted in McTiernan pulling a knife on a Parkhurst Hall resident, demanding drugs and money, according to a GCSU Public Safety report.

McTiernan and Jenkins allegedly conspired to hold up a former “fling” of Jenkins in her residence hall room. The plot reportedly began when Jenkins asked the victim for help on some homework. After spending time in the victim’s room, Jenkins sent a text message to McTiernan, who then knocked on the victim’s door. She opened the door and a hooded figure with a knife approached her, according to the police report.

“It’s a legal pocket knife – it’s probably right at the legal limit,” Assistant Vice President of Public Safety Dave Groseclose said. “It’s enough of a knife that if someone was holding it at you, you would not feel comfortable. It’s no Cub Scout knife.”

A mass Connect-Ed text message and phone call was sent out at around 4:45 p.m. to all students, faculty and staff, alerting every phone number in the Connect-Ed database about a person with a weapon on campus.

“I mean that was the last thing I expected at around 4 o’clock,” Groseclose said. “The day feels like it’s almost over and then all of the sudden it’s just the beginning. The messages went out fairly quickly on Connect-Ed, and I know the first one was very alarming because it was so abrupt. But we needed to get something out quickly and I think we followed up fairly quickly with some back-up information.”

The follow up Connect-Ed text message detailed that the incident occurred at Parkhurst Hall and involved a knife, suggesting that students remain safely indoors.

According to the Public Safety report, after committing the robbery McTiernan slipped away on a shuttle bus at the Centennial Center, which dropped him off at the Maxwell Student Union building. Once inside the dining hall, McTiernan disposed of his incriminating evidence in various places throughout the building. The only thing he did not get rid of was the mask he used to cover his face from the victim, the report states

While McTiernan was fleeing, the Public Safety dispatcher was able to obtain his cell phone number. Major Joe Grant called McTiernan and was informed that he was at MSU. McTiernan told Grant initially that he had been in the library all afternoon and had not been to Parkhurst.

Grant and Sgt. Greg Williams found McTiernan in front of Sodexo, and performed a search of his backpack. Upon finding the mask used in the robbery, Grant and Williams arrested McTiernan at the MSU dining hall and brought him back to Parkhurst.

Following McTiernan’s arrest, officer Brian English arrested McTiernan’s accomplice. The suspect was frisked and the officer found another knife that was approximately six inches long.

“I think at some point, both of (the suspects) knew that they were caught. Both were very cooperative when the detectives talked to him,” Williams said.

Both suspects were arrested within 30 minutes and taken to the Baldwin County jail. They will most likely have a bond hearing sometime this week, according to officials.

“In the state of Georgia, we have a law about conspiracy to commit armed robbery,” Williams said. “So basically since they were both conspired to commit the robbery together and planned it out, they were both charged with armed robbery.”

If convicted on these charges in a Georgia court the suspects could serve a minimum sentence of 10-20 years.

Though the Milledgeville Police Department and the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office aided Public Safety in securing Parkhurst Hall during the situation, the campus police were able to quickly and efficiently handle the investigation and arrests.

“Our officers responded appropriately,” Williams said. “The time in between when we received the first call and when we arrested (McTiernan) was about 15 minutes.”

In the academic sense, Groseclose notes the uncertainty of the two suspects futures until they go before the judicial board of GCSU to determine their fate, but one precaution is certain.

“We are going to trespass them from campus, which would make it difficult for them to come back to school,” Groseclose said.

Trespassing a student means they are only allowed on campus strictly for class or to take a test.

Posted by Elise Colcord on Apr 23 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry