Man gets five-year term for robbery of gas station.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

A California man with a long criminal record was sentenced Friday to more than five years in prison for robbing an Interstate 5 gas station attendant who then pulled her gun and chased him after he threatened to kill her.

While fleeing, the robber got into a fight with the attendant's co-worker. The scuffle ended after the attendant shot out the rear window of the getaway car, which then sped away from the Fuel-N-Go on Van Duyn Road near Coburg.

Police caught the robber, 41-year-old William Cecil Etheridge III, and driver, Robert William Cousineau, 21, shortly after the June robbery following a brief chase along I-5. Cousineau, also from California, was convicted of attempted robbery and is awaiting extradition to California on fugitive charges there. A woman in the car was not charged.

The attendant, Brandy Trotter, said she did not resist the robber until he threatened to kill her after taking cash from the till inside the store. Trotter, who has a concealed handgun permit, said she drew her 9 mm Glock and held it inches from Etheridge's face.

"He thought I was an easy target," she said.

Etheridge ran from the building. Trotter chased him, calling for her co-worker, William James Eikenberry, to stop him. Etheridge punched Eikenberry and dived through the passenger window as the getaway car began moving. Eikenberry pulled him out and the men continued to fight.

Trotter said she shot the window because the robber was too close to Eikenberry to risk a shot at him. Unbeknownst to Trotter, a woman was in the back seat of the car. No one was injured.

In court on Friday, Etheridge said he had just visited his mother in Seattle, had no money and was "just trying to get back home."

"I consider myself lucky I didn't get shot, or somebody else get hurt," Etheridge told the judge.

He pleaded guilty to one count each of second-degree robbery and third-degree robbery.

Lawyers on both sides argued over whether he should serve an extra 18 months for robbing Eikenberry, in addition to the mandatory Measure 11 five-year, 10-month term for robbing Trotter.

Lane County Circuit Judge Darryl Larson ruled that the law recognizes Eikenberry as a separate victim under the circumstances.

Noting that Etheridge's criminal record runs solidly back to 1981 and that he twice skipped out on work release, Larson imposed the extra prison time.

"If you don't get a consecutive sentence, then who in the world would?" Larson told Etheridge.