Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A former Centralia man already imprisoned for life pleaded guilty today to robbing the Chehalis Subway store back in 2008.

Thomas L. Pleasant, 50, was brought from prison to Lewis County last month following his letter to the court requesting the languishing case get handled.

Pleasant was charged in Lewis County in 2008 with first-degree robbery and first-degree rape, but was already in custody for three robberies in Cowlitz County. He’s serving a sentence of life without parole.

He went before a judge today in Lewis County Superior Court, where Senior Prosecuting Attorney Will Halstead said they’d made a plea deal.

Halstead told the judge there were evidentiary issues, and that he could provide more detail at the sentencing hearing.

Pleasant pleaded guilty today to first-degree robbery and second-degree assault.

What the victim described as a gun that looked like a long .22 with a silencer was a pellet gun, according to Pleasant and his lawyer.

He confessed to a Chehalis detective back in 2008 to the July 16, 2008 hold up at the Twin City Town Center, saying he tied up the female worker with an electrical cord and put her in a walk-in cooler.

The rape charge was dropped. Pleasant has denied the rape allegation.

He also noted in his letter to the court that he would be in danger if he went back to prison with such an offense on his record.

Judge Nelson Hunt asked Halstead if the victim was accepting of the plea deal. Halstead said she didn’t like it, but understood it.

Defense attorney Don Blair told the judge they were not ready for sentencing, as he needed to further study his client’s Colorado conviction for second-degree assault, which may or may not count as a “strike” offense.
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For background, read “Suspect from 2008 Subway robbery initiated reopening his case” from Monday March 7, 2016, here

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Top story of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.