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Suspect charged in Ashland grocery store machete robbery By Nick Morgan Updated: Dec 15, 2022 01:38 PM A A Gavel, with defocussed law books behind. A man faces a string of felony charges accusing him of robbing an Ashland grocery store while armed with a machete, threatening to behead a grocery store employee if she didn’t give him cigarettes. Jacques Norman Gerardy, 58, is in the Jackson County Jail on a Measure 11 robbery charge and felony counts of weapon use and attempted first-degree assault accusing him of robbing the Albertsons grocery store in Ashland Tuesday night and later throwing bottles at police and swinging a machete at them before he was subdued with multiple Taser deployments, according to a news advisory issued by Ashland police and documents filed in Jackson County Circuit Court. Shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, police say, Gerardy made threats to an employee while leaving the store with a grocery cart containing $1,007.45 worth of merchandise he hadn’t purchased, according to an affidavit filed by Ashland police in the case. At one point Gerardy allegedly demanded a carton of cigarettes from the front counter. “The suspect threatened the employee that he would cut the employee’s head off if she did not give him cigarettes,” the affidavit states, adding the employee “believed the male’s threat was genuine.” Police found Gerardy with the cart full of unbagged grocery items attempting to cross Tolman Creek Road at 10:38 p.m. The police affidavit alleges Gerardy threw “a couple of full beverage containers at me,” including one that struck an Ashland patrol car’s front windshield. “Gerardy pulled a machete from a sheath on his hip, raised it up and started to approach me,” the officer’s affidavit states, and he noted “other large fixed blade knives in sheaths on the exterior of his body.” Moments later, according to police, Gerardy pivoted to a police sergeant on scene with the large bladed knife. The officer and the sergeant each drew their Tasers, but Gerardy kept approaching until the officer drew a second round of Taser probes. “Gerardy’s body locked up, and he fell to the ground, still holding onto the machete,” the officer states in the affidavit. Once handcuffed, police pried the machete from Gerardy’s hands. They seized a bayonet from a sheath on his chest and “two large ‘Rambo’ like fixed-blade knives on his waistband,” according to the affidavit. Gerardy made his initial appearance Wednesday in Circuit Court on two counts of second-degree robbery, two counts of attempted first-degree assault, two counts of attempted second-degree assault, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and charges of first-degree theft and resisting arrest. The crime of second-degree robbery carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years, 10 months in prison if convicted under Oregon’s Measure 11 mandatory-minimum sentencing law. At the hearing, Circuit Court Judge Laura Cromwell ordered Gerardy not be released early unless he posts 10% bond on bail set at $500,000. Oregon court records show no prior criminal history for Gerardy. Jackson County Jail records showed Gerardy was still an inmate as of Thursday afternoon. Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.