WESTFIELD – A city man who made the mistake of befriending a heroin addict and burglar appeared in Westfield District Court Wednesday for adjudication of nine criminal cases resulting from his association with the man.
Alfred W. Jasmin, 68, of 189 Springfield Road, was allowed to submit to facts sufficient to warrant guilty findings for six charges of larceny of property valued more than $250,
five charges of breaking and entering a building in the daytime with intent to commit a felony, five charges of breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, two charges of attempting to commit a crime and a single charge of larceny of property valued more than $250.
The charges were brought by Westfield detectives as nine cases at the conclusion of an investigation into more than a dozen burglaries which were conducted by another man, Jasmin’s friend, Christopher D. Moll, 46, whose last known address (before he began sleeping on the couch in Jasmin’s trailer) was 2063 Memorial Drive, Chicopee.
According to city Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson who led the investigation into the housebreaks in the winter of 2012-2013, Jasmin was charged for the other man’s crimes under the “acting in concert” concept because he knowingly had driven Moll (who, as a heroin addict, could not support a car) to the neighborhoods where he broke into houses.
He later picked up Moll and then drove him to Holyoke, first to a bodega where Moll fenced his swag and then to a drug dealer were the proceeds of the burglaries were converted to heroin.
Dickinson said at the time of the investigation that Jasmin was “remorseful” and very helpful with the investigation, confessing to his part and showing officers where he had dropped off Moll and later picked him up.
In return, he was not arrested like Moll but had been allowed to remain at liberty until he was summoned to court to answer the same charges Moll had been charged with.
Ironically, when Moll’s case was heard in Hampden Superior Court before Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder the judge ruled that an investigation into Moll’s cellphone at the time of his arrest had been improper and rejected the evidence against Moll which flowed from the phone’s contents.
As a result, the charges resulting from ten of the housebreaks Moll had been arraigned for were dismissed.
Moll, who had been caught in January, 2013, in the act of breaking into a house on Devon Terrace, pleaded guilty to the two break-ins remaining and was sentenced to an 18-month term in prison to be followed by two years on probation.
In court Wednesday, Judge Philip A. Contant, allowed Jasmin to submit to the facts of the nine cases and in each case placed him on probation for six months. Jasmin was also assessed, in each case, $90.
