Three UTM students and a 17-year-old minor were charged inWeakley County last week with aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
According to affidavits released by UTM’s Department of Public Safety, Jeremy Anderson, Cortez Bowen and Richard Taylor were charged with two counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping.
Both Taylor and Bowen reside at University Courts. Anderson lives on West Peach Street in Martin.
In an article by Brad Gaskins of the Weakley County Press, Scott Robbins, UTM’s director of Public Safety said, “a ‘large amount’ [of] marijuana was recovered, and drug-related charges could be brought against the victims.”
Anderson, 22, from Knoxville, Tenn., is a senior majoring in Health and Human Performance. Bowen, 21, from Memphis, is a sophomore with no declared major, and Taylor, 19, from Nashville, is a freshman majoring in Health and Human performance licensure K-12.
According to the affidavits, the victims identified Taylor as one of the men involved in the incident. However, Taylor identified Anderson and Cortez as two of the subjects that had robbed the victims and held them against their will at gunpoint.
One victim had $700 stolen during the robbery; however $5 in cash and a cell phone was stolen from the other victim.
“The two victims were specifically targeted,” said Robbins in The Press article.
Robbins told The Press there was a chain of events that unfolded at 11:45 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, and continued through the early hours of Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Monday night, the suspects stopped a car driven by the victims. This took place at the University Village, Phase 1 apartments. Two suspects, one with a shotgun and the other with a handgun, got into the car with the victims and forced them to drive to another location on campus. One victim was then moved to another vehicle and held hostage, while the other victim was forced to retrieve drugs and the $700 cash from a dorm room.
At 12:33 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, the UTM Police Department was called. With both victims being injured during the incident, one was transported to a hospital for treatment and released a few hours later. Martin Police Department assisted with the investigation.
“Drug-related charges could be brought against the victims,” Robbins said in the Press. article.
