A man from East St. Louis, Illinois, avoided a trial by pleading guilty to a charge of first-degree attempted robbery for an incident that occurred in December 2019 in Jefferson City.
During a hearing before Cole County Judge Dan Green, Terry Odom, 28, was placed on five years supervised probation and ordered to serve 30 days in the Cole County Jail with credit for time served. Online court records show the guilty plea was entered as part of an agreement with prosecutors who dropped two counts of receiving stolen property.
If Odom fails to follow the conditions of his probation, he faces 10 years in prison.
The incident occurred at an ATM at Jefferson Bank on Eastland Drive, according to a Jefferson City Police Department probable cause statement.
A woman said she had seen an SUV parked in the bank drive-thru when a man wearing a mask and reflective vest appeared at the window of her vehicle and pointed an assault rifle at her. The woman pushed the barrel of the rifle away and drove away. She said she had heard the ignition of the SUV attempting to start, but it did not. The woman said she then saw the man who had pointed the rifle at her, along with another person in dark clothing, get out of the vehicle and run away.
Police searched the vehicle and reportedly found an A-15 rifle inside, which they later learned had been reported as stolen.
A witness reported seeing two men running between houses from the direction where the attempted robbery took place.
An officer contacted Odom on Seven Hills Road, which is south of where the witness saw the two men running. Odom was wearing dark clothing and shoes that appeared to match those seen on a person who was caught on bank video surveillance around the time the attempted robbery occurred.
A second woman told police she had discovered her SUV had been stolen. There were two sets of keys inside; and when Odom was found by police, he was in possession of two sets of keys. The woman later identified one of the keys Odom had as a set that had been in her vehicle.