December 19, 2016
A Mattapan man had bail set at $50,000 and his alleged female accomplice had bail set at $25,000 at their arraignment Monday on charges they held up a Papa John's delivery person at gunpoint and then threatened her and her family members with death if she went to police.
The woman, Jennaisa Simms, 19, used to work at Papa John's with the victim and was the one who called in the $80 order that led to the robbery Dec. 9 on Hiawatha Road, assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Robert Connelly said at their arraignment in Dorchester District Court.
Police are still looking for two other men the victim said also held her up.
Connelly said that when the victim arrived at 19 Hiawatha Rd. - down the street from Turner's home - around 7 p.m. on Dec. 9 - three men and a woman came out and one of the men put a gun up to her face and told her "I don't want to kill you, just give me the money." He said the other three went to the woman's car and rummaged through it for money.
Connelly charged that in the days following the robbery, which in addition to the food netted the robbers $200 in cash and a $65 delivery bag, Simms and Johnathon Turner, 21, called the victim and cautioned her to stay quiet. Then, he continued, they showed up at her relatives' homes in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester and West Roxbury.
"They literally went throughout the city looking for the victim to ensure she would not go to police," he said.
Connelly said the victim was able to pick Turner out of a photo array and Simms from a copy of her driver's license.
On Dec. 16, police arrested Simms and Turner at her home on Goodale Road in Mattapan. After obtaining a search warrant, the next day they found two guns similar to the one described by the victim in the apartment.
Connelly had asked for bail of $75,000 for Turner and $50,000 for Simms
Attorneys for the two suspects asked Judge James Coffey for much lower bail, saying they'd never been in major trouble and were likely the victims of mistaken identity.
Turner's attorney said the victim could not ID the suspects the night of the robbery yet was able to not just ID but name Simms several days later - but only after the victim's cousin told her who she thought the robbers were.
Simms's attorney said she suffers from bipolar disorder and that she "may have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd."