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Last updated on Monday, February 23, 2015
(BLOOMINGTON) - A scary, middle-of-the-night armed break-in and robbery at a westside Bloomington residence, or a drug deal gone very bad?
The Herald Times reports that Monroe Circuit Court jurors on Friday heard lawyers argue both scenarios in the trial of 32-year-old Gerald Curtis Bates of Jasper, who is facing charges of burglary, armed robbery, theft and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
Bates was arrested after Bloomington police found his blood at a home invasion and armed robbery that happened in February.
Bloomington police say Bates' DNA matched a blood trail found in the 800 block of West 12th Street.
Just after 3 a.m. February 18th, the couple, a 38-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, awoke to the sounds of someone in their living room, where their three children were sleeping.
Bates, armed with what the woman described as an "antique" shotgun, demanded cash and jewelry.
The woman was able to get the three children to safety while the woman's husband shot Bates with a pistol. She was then able to hit Bates in the head with a walking stick.
According to Bloomington police Sgt. Joe Crider, the blood collected at the scene of the home invasion robbery was identified in the state DNA database as Bates'.
Bates was arrested on a parole violation in the Evansville Parole District on May 13. When asked by a parole officer about the scar by his right eyebrow, Bates reportedly said he had gotten into a fight.
He was transferred to the Monroe County Jail in late May, after Bloomington police obtained a search warrant to collect a DNA sample from Bates before he was sent back to the Branchville Correctional Facility to serve the remainder of a prison sentence.
During a police interview, Bates said he was not in Bloomington at the time of the February robbery, and that the scar came from an injury while he was working on his pickup truck.
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