A man charged with a recent crime spree, including the kidnapping and robbery of an Ohio State student, pleaded not guilty to 20 felony charges Wednesday.

Jeffrey A. York, 21, of Livingston Avenue, was arrested on Oct. 11 in connection with four robberies. Most of the crimes played a similar scenario — four men in a van approach a pedestrian and ask for directions before one of the men pulls out a handgun and robs the pedestrian. In one of the cases, an OSU student was kidnapped and robbed before the men abandoned him in the South Side.

The crime spree began at 7 p.m. Sept. 29 when a man identified as York and three unidentified men robbed a woman who was leaving a store on Parsons Avenue on the city’s South Side. The men pulled up in a van and asked the woman for directions before York robbed her at gunpoint, said Ron O’Brien, Franklin County Prosecutor.

York and his accomplices reportedly robbed an employee at Lowe’s on East Broad Street at 10 p.m. Oct. 6 as he was walking to his car after work. Again, the men asked the victim for directions before robbing him at gunpoint.

That same night, the men kidnapped a male OSU student at 11:30 p.m. on the corner of 15th Avenue and High Street. They took the student to an ATM and forced him to withdraw $600, according to police reports.
The men then stole the student’s cell phone and dropped him off in the South Side. He walked to a nearby restaurant and called police, O’Brien said.

The student is lucky that York and the men released him, O’Brien said, as similar crimes often end in homicide.

The final robbery occurred Oct. 9, when York and his accomplices allegedly pulled up to a man and woman leaving Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace at 246 S. Fourth Street around 11 p.m. They stole a purse, an iPod, wallet and phone.

A S.W.A.T. team from Columbus Police traced York to his van at the Brookside Motel on 3020 E. Main St on Oct. 11. During the arrest, police discovered stolen property from the robberies.

Police are still investigating the three other men suspected in the robberies. York remains in jail with a bond of $150,000, facing a maximum penalty of 10 years for each indictment.

He will be assigned an attorney this week before his trial date is set.