WESTFIELD – A West Springfield Man is facing home invasion charges after a city couple alleged that visitors who had come to smoke marijuana with them stole their pot – and more than $1,000 which happened to be on their table.
The robbery was reported at 10:01 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, by a female Brookline Avenue resident and Officers Michael Gibbons and Harry Sienkiewicz arrived within seconds of each other six minutes later.
Sienkiewicz reports that the woman told him that a person she has known for several years came to her residence to smoke marijuana with her and brought an unknown friend with him.
She said that as the two men were leaving, one took a stack of cash – more than $1,000 – from the dining room table and when the caller and her boyfriend objected the unknown man produced a handgun and told them to stay back.
The victims told Sienkiewicz that the men then also stole an ounce of marijuana, two cellphones and a watch before they fled in a vehicle the victims described.
The male victim said that he followed the fleeing car but broke off pursuit when he saw the unknown man pointing the gun at him from the car.
Det. Sgt. Steven K. Dickinson said later that the actual circumstances of the incident may be a little different that those described by the victims.
Dickinson reports that when he and Det. Timothy Grady interviewed the couple he learned that the couple’s visitors had come, not just to smoke marijuana, but to buy it.
He said that the woman told him that a man she knew had called and asked to buy an ounce of pot but Dickinson said that more marijuana appears to have been involved.
“We believe he (the resident) was in possession of a quarter pound” of marijuana prior to the robbery he said.
The couple identified the man who they knew and who had set up the purported purchase. The police investigation led to the identification of the armed man.
The victims said that they believed the gun the unknown man brandished to be real and said that it looked like a .22 caliber or pellet pistol.
The detectives report that they sought and found the known suspect at his West Springfield home.
An interview with him revealed the identity of his partner and some information about the crime.
The man, Steven Ashley, 20, of 23 Queen Ave., West Springfield, said that his partner, Brandon Trevon Spigner, 23, with a last known address on Jennings St. in Springfield, had used his cellphone and pretended to be Ashley when he set up a purchase of a quarter pound of marijuana.
He said that they were hoping to lure the victim outside to rob but were obliged to go inside where they bought one ounce before robbing the couple of their pot. He denied stealing cash.
Ashley was arrested for three charges of firearm-armed home invasion and two charges of armed robbery.
The three home invasion charges are due to the fact that in addition to the male resident and his pregnant girlfriend, the woman’s three-year-old child was also present. The Department of Children and Families was notified of the incident.
With the second suspect identified, the detectives secured a search warrant but did not find Spigner when they executed it with assistance from Springfield police. Nonetheless, a copy of the warrant was left at the address.
Dickinson said he found that Spigner is the subject of a Connecticut warrant for a robbery charge in that state.
Ashley was arraigned in Westfield District Court on Friday before Judge Philip A. Contant on the home invasion charges only and was released after he posted $2,500 cash bail pending a Feb. 13 hearing. Contant ordered that he make no threats or violence toward the victims and that he must stay at least 50 yards away from their residence.
Contant also ordered Ashley to remain drug-free and ordered that he submit to drug testing.
Dickinson said that neighbors have suspected that the victims may have been selling contraband and one had gone so far as to set up video surveillance which captured what he believes to be a narcotics transaction.
To date, no weapon has been recovered and the missing cash, three ounces of marijuana and the other stolen property is still unaccounted for, Dickinson said.
