Published: October 20, 2009 11:39 pm      

Prison sentences issued for kidnapping, organized crime

A local man has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping and organized crime in connection with a home invasion in Greenville one year ago.

Gregory Wayne Anderson Jr. of Greenville also had probations for assaulting a public servant, felony theft and escape revoked.

Anderson, 18, entered pleas of guilty during a hearing in the 196th District Court Tuesday to one count each of aggravated kidnapping and engaging in organized criminal activity. Under a plea bargain arrangement, Anderson was sentenced to eight years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division.

Anderson also had probations for two counts of assault of a public servant and one count of felony escape revoked and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Anderson’s probation for felony theft was also revoked and he was sentenced to 730 days in a state jail, with all sentences scheduled to run concurrently.

Anderson was one of four people indicted by the Hunt County grand jury on one count of aggravated kidnapping. The indictment alleged Anderson and the others forced their way into a home in the 1700 block of Gibbons on the evening of Oct. 2, 2008. A criminal complaint filed by the police department alleged the defendants demanded drugs and/or money from the occupants inside the residence. When the occupants said they had neither drugs nor money, the four armed defendants abducted a female from the home, then later commandeered a car at gunpoint and forced the driver to proceed to another location, where the female victim was released unharmed. The complaint alleged the kidnapping victim recognized one of the defendants and that records of the defendants’ cell phone activity during the time frame also tied them to the crime.

The engaging in organized criminal activity indictment alleged Anderson and three other defendants acted and conspired together with the, “intent to establish, maintain and/or participate in a combination and in the profits of a combination and/or as a member of a criminal street gang.”

Anderson pleaded guilty in January to charges of felony escape causing bodily injury, two counts of assault of a public servant and one count of theft of property of the value of between $1,500 and $20,000.

Anderson was 16 when he was arrested in Greenville for allegedly stealing movies, electronics and other items on January 7, 2008. Anderson was alleged to have escaped from the Hunt County Juvenile Detention Center eight days later while biting a detention officer and a juvenile probation officer in the process.

Anderson’s probations were revoked after he was found to have smoked marijuana on Aug. 14 and Oct. 1 of this year, while failing to pay al of his associated court costs.