Anchorage Daily News
 

North Pole man accepts deal for aiming at officer
STANDOFF: After eluding police for two months, suspect captured.

The Associated Press

(01/11/09 21:50:38)

FAIRBANKS -- A North Pole man who eluded police for two months and was finally arrested after a four-hour standoff in Fairbanks has agreed to a plea deal that calls for a six-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors and an attorney for Robert Tyrone Gentleman III announced the agreement Friday.

Gentleman, 30, will plead guilty to pointing the gun at a police officer.

Fairbanks prosecutors said they would dismiss another felony case and some pending misdemeanor charges filed against Gentleman.

A formal change of plea hearing is scheduled for Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Robert Downes, who can reject the agreement.

Gentlemen faces other charges and his girlfriend, Aurora Celeste Cox, 21, was charged last month with hindering prosecution and permitting an unauthorized person to drive.

University of Alaska Fairbanks police in August spotted Gentleman speeding on an all-terrain vehicle and tried to pull him over. After a high-speed chase, he pulled a handgun on the officer and attempted to carjack another vehicle, police said.

Later in August, a Fairbanks police officer tried to pull over Gentleman, who was driving a car with a broke taillight. According to police, the car sped away and was later found abandoned with the front passenger seat soaked with alcohol.

North Pole police attempted to stop Gentleman for speeding Sept. 20 on the Richardson Highway. After a brief pursuit, he was able to evade them on foot. A handgun and bags of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine were found in the abandoned vehicle, police said.

Two days later a woman told Fairbanks police that she saw a car traveling at nearly 100 mph drive off the Mitchell Expressway. As she drove closer to check on the driver, she said, Gentleman came toward her in an aggressive manner and demanded to be let into her car. He then hopped a nearby fence and fled.

After a standoff Oct. 10 at an east Fairbanks home, Gentleman was arrested.

Gentleman had brushes with the law in previous years.

In September 2004, Alaska State Troopers tried to arrest Gentleman near North Pole for driving with a revoked license. He fled on foot.

The following year, he walked away from a halfway house but was quickly arrested.

Even if the judge approves the plea agreement, Gentleman faces other charges, including two counts of felony assault and driving under the influence. He's accused of crashing his truck into a sport utility vehicle driven by a 17-year-old North Pole girl.

Bill McAfee, a chiropractor, said his daughter Sheena, sustained a collapsed lung and multiple fractures in the crash. He didn't know Gentleman was out of jail when the most recent incidents occurred.

"It's disgusting," he said. "I'm very upset with the whole system. He's got a record as long as anybody I've ever seen, yet the state keeps putting him on the road."

 


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