A man accused of hitting a car owner in the face with a rock and stealing his vehicle faces a third strike if convicted as charged, according to Pierce County prosecutors.
Jesse Ray Lowry, 28, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and attempting to elude a police vehicle.
He was arrested Sunday night after a man told police Lowry hit him in the face with a rock as he stood by his parked car outside the Fred Meyer store at South 72nd Street and Pacific Avenue, according to court documents.
The two fought, and the man might have hit his head on the pavement before Lowry drove away, charging papers state. The car owner received several stitches and staples afterward.
According to court records:
A witness told police the carjacker repeatedly slammed his knee into the man’s face before stealing his car.
An officer found the car in the North End of Tacoma and followed it. When the driver got out of the car in a driveway, the officer told him at gunpoint to get on the ground. Instead the man got back into the car and drove away. After a short pursuit the driver crashed the car into a large pile of dirt and was found in a nearby park.
Lowry previously pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault and attempted voyeurism after a partially deaf woman accused him of entering her room naked and trying to get into bed with her in 2010. She had left the door unlocked because she knew she wouldn’t hear her daughter knock when she got home, according to court documents.
She screamed and fought to get him out of the house, and he pushed her down in the process, records show. Police arrived and arrested Lowry.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree assault two years earlier after his girlfriend reported he had punched her in the eye. He told her to drive him to Tacoma, and she pulled into a gas station and ran inside with her small son to call 911, according to court records.
The court set Lowry’s bail at $1 million for the latest charges.
Alexis Krell: 253-597-8268 alexis.krell@ thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
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