By LEONARD GRAY

Managing Editor

LAPLACE — A 40-year-old Garyville man has been booked with armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder in the June 2 attack on a 16-year-old LaPlace store clerk.

Maj. Michael Tregre said Nathan Williams, 40, confessed to entering David Lee’s Boutique and robbing the store, slashing the teenage clerk several times in an attempt to leave no living witness.

He was &#8220tired of having no money,” Tregre reported Williams saying to detectives.

The incident began at 5:28 p.m., when Williams allegedly entered the store, grabbed the clerk and demanded that she open the register. The nervous clerk had trouble getting the register open, and finally did, but not before he had cut her with a knife.

He robbed the till and made her lie on the floor while he started to leave, Tregre said. However, he realized he was leaving someone who could identify him, so he returned and allegedly tried to slash her throat.

Tregre said she protected her throat with her hands, but he cut her on her forearm and inflicted at least two severe slashes on her face before leaving.

He discarded the weapon in a trash bin nearby and hitchhiked out of LaPlace and back to Garyville.

Tregre said Williams was arrested Wednesday by St. James Parish authorities, who booked him as a St. John Parish fugitive. He was returned to LaPlace and booked on the above charges Thursday, where he is said to have confessed to the robbery and attack.

According to Tregre, Williams has prior convictions for rape and burglary.