A Cookeville woman, stopped by Smithville Police after allegedly committing an armed robbery of the McMinnville Cash and Dash in October 2010, has received a fifteen year sentence for the crime.
23 year old Patricia Johnson East recently entered a guilty plea before Warren County Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to the charge of robbery, according to a report in the Southern Standard. East received a fifteen year sentence to be served in the women’s state penitentiary with no chance of parole. The Warren County sentence will be served at the same time as sentences for similar crimes in surrounding counties.
East was stopped on South Congress Boulevard in Smithville shortly after 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 19, 2010. Inside her vehicle, Smithville police found a 45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, cash, and a coat and hat she is believed to have worn during the robbery. East had apparently just come from McMinnville where she had robbed the Cash and Dash at gunpoint. She reportedly left with $600-$700 in cash.
According to Chief Randy Caplinger, police received a BOLO or “Be on the lookout” for a white SUV being driven by a white female. A license plate number was given. The BOLO, received at 3:50 p.m., reported that a woman had “just robbed at gunpoint a Cash and Dash in McMinnville.” The car was last seen traveling toward Smithville.
Chief Caplinger said Captain Steven Leffew set up on South Congress Boulevard waiting for the vehicle and spotted it shortly after 4:00 p.m.
Captain Leffew’s report states ” I set up on South Congress Boulevard at 4:09 p.m. and saw a white Pathfinder driven by a white female traveling northbound. As I got behind the vehicle, I confirmed the license plate number. I stopped the vehicle and approached it from the passenger side. I instructed the driver to place her hands on the roof of the car. I told the woman, Patricia Johnson East, that the McMinnville Police Department was requesting to talk to her and they were enroute. East became upset and started crying. I told her to calm down but to keep her hands where I could see them. I asked her if there were any weapons in the vehicle and she stated “no”.
“Officer Matt Farmer arrived on the scene. He approached the vehicle from the passenger side. Officer Farmer asked her if he could look in the vehicle and she said “yes”. Farmer ordered her to get out of the vehicle. He noticed a gun case on the passenger side floor board. Farmer also produced a pistol from the car. She was handcuffed and taken into custody for protection and she was read her rights. She gave a verbal consent to search her vehicle.”
Chief Caplinger says McMinnville and Sparta detectives came to the scene and authorities from Cumberland County later arrived at the police department to question her about similar crimes in those counties. She was then taken to Warren County to be charged. East reportedly confessed to the Cash and Dash robbery, as well as two other robberies in the Midstate.
Before her arrest that day , Chief Caplinger said Smithville Police were called to two locations in Smithville to check out a suspicious person, which could have been East.
Chief Caplinger said an officer was called to 3D Financial at 2:31 p.m. in reference to a panic alarm. Upon arrival an employee stated that they received an alert in reference to a white female, driving a white SUV who had committed an armed robbery in Cumberland County and Putnam County. Employees said a female driving a similar type vehicle came into the business (3D Financial) and she was acting suspiciously. The woman had left the business by the time police arrived.
The police department was called to Cash Express on a similar complaint, but again the suspect was gone by the time police arrived.
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