Robber pepper sprayed 7 month old baby, steals cigarettes

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A Redding man pleaded no contest Tuesday in Shasta County Superior Court to robbing and pepper-spraying a smoke shop clerk who was holding a 7-month-old baby.

Thomas Lynn Arnett, 23, pleaded no contest to robbery and child abuse, which was reduced to a misdemeanor, in connection with the June 27 robbery at Smoker's Paradise on Hilltop Drive in Redding.

Arnett, who was arrested July 3 in the Walmart parking lot on Dana Drive, remains in Shasta County jail with bail set at $ 500,000.

Arnett was charged with robbing the smoke shop of cigarettes, a glass pipe and a "psychoactive designer drug" called "spice" or "synthetic marijuana" as well as for pepperspraying Gurmit Singh, 35, who was holding his baby.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 14.

Arnett faced a maximum of seven years in prison if tried and convicted of the original charges against him.

But under the terms of the plea bargain, Arnett would not serve any time in prison.

Instead, he would serve up to a year in Shasta County jail and would be on probation for four years afterward.

The case has been turned over to county probation officials to interview Arnett and then provide a sentencing recommendation for Superior Court Judge Dan Flynn to consider at next month's sentencing.