BY KEITH EPPS
Charges against a man who got a face full of hot coffee during a botched robbery in North Stafford last month were sent to a county grand jury yesterday.
Scott Michael Bleutge, 44, of Stafford is charged with robbery, malicious wounding and wearing a mask in public.
He is accused of robbing the Wawa at 105 Garrisonville Road early Oct. 16. The robbery was partially thwarted when an off-duty Secret Service agent, Michael McCrane, tossed coffee into the suspect's face as he was trying to leave.
The suspect got away briefly with about $79, police said. Some $387 was dropped and left behind during the struggle involving McCrane.
During a preliminary hearing yesterday in Stafford General District Court, Wawa manager Douglas Preidis said he saw a masked suspect hanging around the office that morning, so he asked if he could help him.
The suspect pulled out a knife and ordered Preidis to open the safe, Preidis said. When the manager told him he didn't have the key, the suspect walked him to the cash registers.
Preidis yesterday identified Bleutge as the suspect. He said he could see most of his face because of the way the mask was positioned.
Preidis said the suspect got cash from two registers and was about to leave when he was confronted by a customer.
The customer, McCrane, threw coffee into the suspect's face and struggled with him. During the struggle, most of the stolen money fell to the floor and McCrane suffered a slight cut to his chin.
The suspect fled from the store and got into a red Chevrolet Cavalier. Another customer saw the suspect toss the ski mask into a trash can and got the fleeing suspect's license number, according to the evidence presented by prosecutor Tara Mooney.
Deputy Daniel Purcell testified that Bleutge reeked of alcohol and was wet with coffee when the vehicle was stopped a few minutes later on southbound Interstate 95.
Purcell said Bleutge insisted that he had not been at the Wawa, but a 5-inch hunting knife and money believed to have been taken in the robbery were recovered from his car.
Bleutge had just been released from jail the previous day. He had been arrested for stealing a 12-pack of beer from a delivery truck outside the same Wawa.
As is customary in preliminary hearings, defense attorney Terence Patton put on no evidence.
But Patton indicated that he will especially fight the malicious wounding charge, saying that any use of the knife was more of a reaction to the hot coffee than an actual attack.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com