Man says addiction to ‘pills’ made him rob, stalk teen
NORRISTOWN » A 19-yearold Pottstown man told a judge his addiction to “pills” was at the heart of his criminal conduct, robbing a woman at gunpoint and stalking a high school girl.
“What happened here? What the hell were you doing? I’m still befuddled,” Montgomery County Judge Gary S. Silow asked Gregory Lee Tucker III, who pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and stalking in connection with two incidents that occurred in the borough between November 2016 and March 2017.
“Drugs, pills,” Tucker told the judge, adding he only completed the 11th grade in school. “I wasn’t the best of students because of the drugs.”
Tucker, of the 800 block of Queen Street, showed no emotion as he made the admission or learned his fate. Tucker was sentenced to 3¾- to nine-years in a state correctional facility under a plea agreement accepted by the judge.
“You’re a young man. You’re going to be put in a bad place. Try to come out as a law-abiding man,” Silow told Tucker.
Assistant District Attorney Richard Bradbury Jr. sought a state prison term against Tucker, citing the violent nature of the robbery during which Tucker pointed a handgun at the female victim’s head.
“If you’re using a gun to commit a crime in Pottstown we’re coming for you. It’s an excellent way to go to state prison very quickly and we take this very seriously,” said Bradbury, who is captain of the Pottstown Community Prosecution Unit.
Defense lawyer Christopher D. Mandracchia said Tucker regrets his actions.
“Unfortunately, he’s a young man who made mistakes and got caught up in drugs. He pled guilty and admitted his actions and he will hopefully learn and be rehabilitated in the system,” Mandracchia said.
With the charges, prosecutors alleged Tucker and two other males approached a woman who was walking on Queen Street and Tucker grabbed her by her backpack. As the woman struggled with Tucker he displayed a black revolver and used it to strike the woman on her back, according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Detective Brooke Fisher.
“He then placed the barrel of the gun directly to her right temple, at which time the other two males told the armed subject to ‘just shoot her.’ Shortly after, the males fled with the victim’s backpack,” Fisher alleged in the arrest affidavit.
“If you’re using a gun to commit a crime in Pottstown we’re coming for you. It’s an excellent way to go to state prison very quickly and we take this very seriously.” — Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Richard Bradbury Jr.
The victim’s backpack contained her wallet holding about $30, according to testimony.
A few days later, the victim contacted police to report she saw the man who assaulted her with the gun in the area of the 600 block of East High Street. The woman subsequently identified Tucker as the man who held the gun to her head during the robbery.
The other two males, one of them a juvenile, also faced charges in connection with the robbery. But authorities said Tucker was
the most culpable.
During the stalking incident, police said Tucker followed a girl home from Pottstown High School on Nov. 30, 2016. The girl told police Tucker, who she did not know, shouted questions to her and told her, “I just want to get to know you and chill,” according to the criminal complaint.
The girl told Tucker to stop following her and said she “was unaware of his intentions and was afraid she may be attacked in some way,” Pottstown Police Officer Zachary Robinson alleged in the criminal complaint.
The girl told police she changed her direction of travel but that Tucker continued
to follow her, “often grabbing her by the arm and pulling himself closer to her,” Robinson alleged in court documents.
The girl eventually ran to an area business and asked employees for help. Employees of the business provided police with video surveillance that helped police identify Tucker as the stalker.
Under state law, by pleading guilty to the stalking charge Tucker admitted that he followed the girl without proper authority, under circumstances which demonstrated an intent to place her in reasonable fear of bodily injury or to cause her substantial emotional distress.