Pair held on $100G bail, accused of dragging teen
A Roxbury teen who turned to Facebook to sell his Apple iPhone XS for some quick cash is on life support after prosecutors said Kemoni Miller’s prospective buyers stole the device and dragged him from a car for half a mile at 60 mph.
“We’re not through praying. We’re not through being beside him. We are hoping that he pulls through, but … it’s serious,” said Sharnda Young, the maternal grandmother of Miller’s infant daughter.
Miller, 18, “had no basic brain function” upon his arrival at Boston Medical Center late Friday night, according to a state police report released yesterday.
Dejon Barnes, 18, of Worcester and Kenneth Ford, 23, of Roxbury pleaded not guilty to unarmed robbery and were ordered held on $100,000 bail each by Dorchester District Court Judge Lisa Grant.
Grant let both men plead from behind a partially closed door.
“I have no words,” Miller’s stunned-looking older brother Kamari Miller said when asked what he’d like to say to Barnes and Ford. “Cowardly.”
Trooper Genevieve Gibbons found Miller lying in a pool of blood on the side of Gallivan Boulevard shortly before 11:30 p.m. Friday.
Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Amy Martin told Grant that Miller was willing to part with the iPhone XS for a discounted price of $600. A friend put the word out to seven Facebook friends and settled on Barnes, who, Martin said, she had known since elementary school.
They arranged to meet up Friday night on Gallivan Boulevard, Miller and his friend on foot and Barnes in the front passenger seat of a rented sedan that Martin said Ford was driving.
Miller’s friend later told investigators it appeared Barnes was reaching into the glove compartment for the money, but grabbed the phone instead as the car sped off with Miller’s arm trapped in the window.
“It was a senseless act. And over a cellphone?” Young said. “He’s a great father, always involved, well-loved, a very intelligent young man. I tell you, my granddaughter is not taking it lightly. She may be 1 year old, but she knows there’s something’s wrong.”