A 49-year-old New London man accused of robbing the Ravi Mart convenience store on Bank Street at gunpoint last month pleaded not guilty in Superior Court on Tuesday when he made his first appearance before a judge who hears major crime cases. 

Kirk Skinner, 49, whose last known address was 9 Pearl St., has been held in lieu of $49,000 cash on charges of first-degree robbery with a firearm, second-degree larceny and criminal possession of a firearm. Judge Hillary B. Strackbein appointed attorney Peter E. Scillieri to represent him and continued the case to Jan. 7. 

According to city police, Skinner entered the store at 4 a.m. on Oct. 18 wearing a “monster” mask, pointed a gun at the clerk, ordered the store’s occupants to the ground and demanded money. The store clerk, recognizing Skinner as a regular customer, refused. Skinner eventually removed his mask and left the store with a single cigarette. The incident was recorded by a surveillance camera. 

According to court records, Skinner also is charged in connection with an Aug. 29 incident that began at the Ravi Mart and ended with him suffering a serious injury to his hand. Surveillance footage from the store showed Skinner arguing with a group of men outside the store, punching two of them and picking up and throwing a bicycle across the parking lot. The incident continued on Truman Street, where Skinner allegedly rammed 47-year-old Esau Greene with a large trash bin and fought with him. Skinner told police he had been stabbed with a box-cutter, but police, after speaking with Greene and continuing their investigation, determined Skinner’s injuries were more consistent with “road rash” or falling than with a knife cut. 

Skinner has pleaded not guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in that incident.