Holdup in Perris
RIVERSIDE (CNS) – A 20-year-old man who snatched a Perris woman’s phone and tried to do the same thing to another woman, escaping only after leveling a gun at a witness when the party tried to stop him, pleaded guilty Monday to assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Adrian Lee Henning of Moreno Valley admitted the felony count under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admission, prosecutors agreed to drop two related charges against Henning.
Superior Court Judge Melissa Hale scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 5 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The terms of the proposed sentence were not available.
Henning is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Chad Thompson and court documents, on the afternoon of Jan. 16, the defendant contacted two different women, one from Perris and the other from Mead Valley, who had listed mobile phones for sale via online classified ads. He arranged to meet them both at different times and locations that day, investigators said.
Thompson said when Henning encountered the first victim, the Mead Valley resident, he tried to grab her cell phone, but she got away from him, after which he fled.
During the sales transaction involving the Perris resident, identified only as “T.G.,” Henning flashed a pistol and took the mobile phone she had intended to sell, Thompson said.
The criminal complaint said the defendant then jumped into his car and sped away, but T.G.’s friend, a woman identified only as “D.J.,” observed the robbery and went after Thompson in her car.
“The woman followed the defendant when he ended up in a dead end,” documents stated. “When she blocked the defendant’s car in, he pointed the semi-automatic handgun and told the victim to back up. The victim, out of fear, moved her car, and the defendant drove away.”
No one was injured.
The Mead Valley and Perris women both contacted authorities, and detectives soon identified Henning as the perpetrator. He was taken into custody without incident the following day along Moreno Beach Drive in Moreno Valley.
He had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
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