Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Crime Watch 12/06/24

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel 
By SAM KLOMHAUS Sam.Klomhaus@gjsentinel.com 12/06/2024

On a sunny morning on May 21, 2021, people traveling along North Avenue near Second Street were greeted with a chaotic scene.

Law Enforcement vehicles and personnel were scattered all around the area, including heavily armed SWAT team members.

A robbery suspect fled the area and broke into a nearby apartment. It was a tense scene eventually punctuated with a loud boom as a flash-bang device was set off in the apartment.

A few minutes later, the suspect, Andrew Gregg, was handcuffed, slid into an awaiting police vehicle and taken to jail.

Gregg, now 37, was finally sentenced for that robbery, which occurred at the Sinclair Stinker gas station and convenience store at 201 North Ave.

On Wednesday, Gregg was sentenced to 196 years in prison.

Gregg was found guilty by a jury on counts of burglary, aggravated robbery, felony menacing, criminal mischief, illegal discharge of a firearm and assault on a police officer, as well as a number of minor charges, after a trial in which Gregg pleaded not guilty by insanity.

Judge Matthew Barrett found that a habitual criminal sentence enhancer applies in this case, and sentenced Gregg to 48 years in the Department of Corrections for burglary, 64 years in the Department of Corrections for Aggravated Robbery, 12 years for illegal discharge of a firearm, 48 years for assault and menacing, and 24 years for assault on a police officer, with those sentences to run consecutively, for a total of 196 years in the Department of Corrections.

Barrett noted Gregg has four prior convictions for robbery and has a case pending in which he is accused in an attempted robbery when he was out on bail in which one person died.

^{Andrew Gregg 2023 arrest photo} 

Gregg was arrested in May 2021 after police said he robbed the Sinclair Stinker convenience store and gas station at around 5:45 a.m. with a gun. He then fled, breaking into an apartment complex on the 200 block of Belford Avenue, which led to a standoff with the Grand Junction Police Department and Mesa County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team.

Police said Gregg attempted to flee from law enforcement but was apprehended after a short pursuit.

“It is nothing short of a miracle that no one was seriously injured or worse, killed,” Barrett said.

In Colorado, in order to be found not legally sane at the time of a crime, a person must be found incapable of distinguishing right from wrong at the time a crime is committed because of a mental disease or defect.

“What you did here was of your own volition, you knew what you were doing,” Barrett said.

Barrett noted the facts of the case had not been disputed.

“The facts are incredibly disturbing, but it’s also worth noting the evidence was overwhelming,” Barrett said.

The incident was not Gregg’s first brush with the law.

Gregg was arrested in Fort Collins in 2012 and charged with robbing a convenience store in Rifle, as well as a string of crimes in Fort Collins that police said included stealing a van, attempting to rob a senior living center, attempting to rob an ATM, and attempting to rob a Subway restaurant.

Gregg was contacted by police moments after the Subway robbery with cash stuffed in his pants.

Additionally, Gregg has a case pending in Mesa County stemming from a 2023 incident in which he is accused of attempting to rob a man and a woman along with three accomplices, including one, Tyson Bratcher, who was shot and killed during the incident by one of the people they were attempting to rob.

A hearing in that case is scheduled for Dec. 12.

Barrett mentioned both Gregg’s criminal history, which included Gregg’s first arrest for robbery in 2007, and his behavior while out on bond as factors in his sentencing.

Gregg’s prison sentence will be followed by three years probation.

“You need to be away from us for as long as possible to protect us from you,” Barrett said.