Crime & Courts

Armed robbery suspect who cut ankle monitor arrested in Anchorage

NOTE: This story has been updated. Click here for the latest version.

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Update, 9:30 a.m. Thursday: Johnny Degrate II was taken into custody without incident Wednesday night, according to Anchorage police.

Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Jennifer Castro said Degrate was arrested around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday in the area of East 16th Avenue and Eagle Street, near the Sullivan Arena.

A judge was set to rule Thursday morning on how to proceed with the trial of Robert Potts, who is being tried simultaneously with Degrate.

Original Story:A 19-year-old suspected of multiple armed robberies earlier this year cut off his ankle monitor and didn't show up for trial Tuesday, according to the Anchorage District Attorney's Office.

The trial of Johnny Degrate II began Monday at the Nesbett Courthouse, before Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby, online records show. But on the second day of the jury trial, Degrate cut off his ankle monitor, the DA's office wrote in a release.

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His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Saxby issued a $50,000 arrest warrant for Degrate for failing to appear.

Degrate is on trial for multiple robberies in January and February of this year, including one in the parking lot of the Dimond Center.

In that case, a 30-year-old woman was sitting in her car in the Best Buy parking lot on the morning of Feb. 12 when a man holding a gun approached her, opened the driver's side door and demanded her purse and cellphone, police said; the suspect fled in a PT Cruiser with another man. Police made contact with the vehicle about 5 miles away shortly after the alleged robbery.

When officers located the PT Cruiser, they found 22-year-old Robert Potts in the driver's seat and Degrate in the passenger's seat, according to a charging document in the case.

Degrate and Potts were both initially charged with first-degree armed robbery with a deadly weapon related to the Dimond Center case, according to the charging document. But in indictment filed in late June, additional charges were added against the men, including three additional first-degree robbery charges and a single charge of first-degree conspiracy to commit robbery.

The DA's office said Degrate and Potts were involved in a total of four armed robberies between Jan. 19 and Feb. 12. Court documents allege the duo plotted to commit the crimes together.

Degrate was approved for bail Aug. 17.

Potts and Degrate were being tried together. There is a status hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning to see whether or not Degrate is in court, Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion said. Campion added they were "undecided" on whether or not a trial for Potts would continue without Degrate.

Megan Edge

Megan Edge is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

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