A man accused of holding up a convenience store with an ice scraper will cool his heels in jail for now, until a grand jury considers his case.

James W. Lawrence Jr., 52, of 495 County Road 1A, Ironton, appeared in Ironton Municipal Court Thursday for a preliminary hearing. He is charged with first-degree felony aggravated robbery in connection with the February hold up of the Park Avenue Speedway, during which he allegedly used an ice scraper to force the cashier to give him $200 from the cash register.

"He actually went into the store two times," Ironton Police Capt. Jim Carey testified during Lawrence's preliminary hearing. "He said he went in once and decided there were too many people in the store and he left and when the last person went out of the store he went back in."

During cross examination, defense attorney David Reid Dillon queried whether an ice scraper was sufficiently dangerous enough to be considered a weapon.

"Have you ever known someone to be injured or killed with an ice scraper?" he asked.

Carey said the ice scraper Lawrence used could be considered a weapon: it was approximately two feet long with a fiberglass handle and hard plastic blade.

Ironton Municipal Court Judge O.

Clark Collins denied Dillon's request to dismiss charges .

Lawrence was arrested March 4 by Portsmouth police after local authorities identified him from a store surveillance tape. He remains in the Lawrence County Jail.