UT Vols' Richardson, Jackson, Edwards Arrested for Armed Robbery

Written by Tony Adams

Thursday, 12 November 2009 05:49

UT Vols players Nu'Keese Richardson, Janzen Jackson, and Mike Edwards were arrested at 1:45am EST Thursday. The trio allegedly used a semi-automatic in an aggravated armed robbery in the parking lot of the Pilot Food Mart on the Cumberland Strip.

Jackson was suspended for last week's game against the Memphis Tigers.

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According to VolunteerTV.com (and other sources):

Janzen Jackson was inside of the Pilot Food Mart while Richardson, Edwards and a female remained outside. The four were in the female's 2010 Toyota Prius and parked next to a car. According to reports, Edwards and Richardson approached the other car with what looked like a semi-automatic handgun and demanded the occupants of the other vehicle to "give them everything they had" ... the victims "showed the assailants their empty wallets".

At this time Jackson exited the store and stated "We gotta go" and the four left in the Prius and were apprehended a short time later by the Knoxville Police Department.

At the time of the arrest, KPD found a Co2 pellet gun underneath the backseat, clothes that the victims had described in the car, a marijuana grinder, and a bag of marijuana (on the female).

OK ... first, love Jerod's take on this at Mid-West Sports Fans

I echo Jerod's sentiments. How freaking stupid does not one, but FOUR people have to be? If you are going to do something so asininely stupid as this, do you do it at a place of business that is owned by your University's NUMBER ONE booster? Good Grief.

To top it off, reportedly, two of the criminals were asked why they did it. The answer? "We were bored".

Uh, ok. Why did you read a book? I was bored. Why did you go to the mall? I was bored. Why did you cut class? I was bored. Why did you decide to to rob someone at a booster's convenience store? I was bored. WTF?

I know these kids, they ARE 18 years old, have a LOT of growing up to do. That is obvious. This (if proven; seems like a slam dunk to me) is beyond description. Not only were the UT football players on the Strip at 1:45am (that would be in the middle of the night), but they have drug paraphernalia in the car with them?

What a shock.

I am quite sure that by the time that is over with, we will all hear about under privileged kids, family situations, etc ... we will not be surprised to hear Janzen Jackson say he is innocent of all charges ... you were in the car bud, you could have went back into the store and bailed on your friends, but chose to get back into the car. Save it.

We are not talking about kids in the Sudan. You guys were SEC football players in the Southeastern Conference. Granted, the administration at UT has yet to issue a 'real' statement (14+ hours later), but should be forthcoming at any time.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. Yet another embarrassment in the cap of Lane Kiffin when the team was supposed to be focuing on completing the season with a strong finish ... I wonder how this affects the team because it is one heck of a distraction.

Mark my words, the Phillip Fulmer fans will be screaming very shortly and they will be very loud about it.

Note: the update below the line is from Darrell Owenby