Rutland Herald
The 29-year-old woman, along with two friends, had gone to the parking lot just after midnight to meet with an acquaintance, Jennifer M. Perkins, after Perkins texted her and asked that they meet near the Rent-a-Center vans, the affidavit said.
Perkins, 29, walked up to the vehicle and started chatting and petting the woman’s dog through the window; the woman told her to jump in the back if she needed a ride, police said.
Just as Perkins was getting into the back seat, a white Subaru wagon with the lights off pulled in front of the woman’s car and two men, wearing hooded sweatshirts and winter wool hats, jumped out of the vehicle brandishing weapons, the affidavit said.
The woman put her car in reverse to get away, police said, but Perkins was half-way out of the vehicle and she began screaming, “I’m being run over,” so the woman stopped.
A man with a shotgun pointed the gun in the passenger window, while the other man, holding a knife, stabbed the driver’s side tire before pointing the knife at the driver and demanding, “Give us your purse,” according to the affidavit.
Perkins, of Rutland, pleaded innocent in Rutland criminal court on Monday to a charge of aiding and abetting in the commission of a felony.
Police had originally arrested Perkins on a charge of assault and robbery with a weapon, but Judge Thomas A. Zonay found probable cause on the lesser charge. “The court would note that she essentially set up the victim,” he said.
The man who allegedly pointed the shotgun, Eduardo Aviles, 40, who lives with Perkins at her mother’s Cleveland Avenue home, pleaded innocent to a charge of assault and robbery with a weapon.
Police could not be reached regarding the unidentified man with the knife.
According to the affidavit, after the woman threw her purse at the man with the knife, Perkins and Aviles jumped into the Subaru the man with the knife was driving, and they sped away with the lights off.
The woman said she drove her car into a parking space, and she and her two friends went into the Price Chopper for help.
She said her purse, a Coach bag, contained $260 in cash, her passport, her Citizens Bank debit card, pay stubs from her job and other items.
In the affidavit, Perkins said she had contacted the woman to buy heroin and when she didn’t have any drugs they robbed her, but the woman said Perkins had asked her to buy her a pack of Newport cigarettes from Walgreens.
In court, the defense asked that Perkins be released to her mother’s home on 24-hour curfew because of her ties to the community.
Her lawyer, Ember Tilton, called Donna Wilson to the stand.
Wilson is a retired Rutland High School teacher and a lister in Pittsford. Perkins was her student and they had maintained a relationship over the years.
“She was one of my students,” she said. “I’d like to advocate for Jennifer. She is very trustworthy. I think she just got mixed up with the wrong people. This is not in her nature.”
Tilton then called Perkins’ mother to the stand who said that Aviles was no longer welcome at her home.
Despite the testimony on her behalf, Zonay imposed bail at $50,000 with 10 percent down to secure the $50,000. She was ordered to the Chittenden County jail.
Aviles is currently in the Rutland jail on $100,000 bond.
Comment: Something's really fishy with this story.
Vito
I agree, Vito. Of course, the first problem is that so many newspaper reports are hard to follow--I don't know if it's poor writing or poor editing. I got totally lost while trying to read this one. I had to read it two more times before I figured it out. I wonder why the victim's name was not reported. Would you drive to Rutland to meet an "acquaintance" at midnight because she asked you to buy her a pack of cigarettes in Walgreens? I think this has drugs written all over it.
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