Second teen charged in robbery, shooting
LANTANA — A second teenager faces felony charges in a shooting this month after a d r u g d e a l t u r n e d i n t o an armed robbery, police records state.
Jelani Nembhard, 17, was booked into Palm Beach County’s adult jail Wednesday afternoon. He is being held there without bond on kidnapping, attempted homicide and armed robbery charges.
Nembhard was taken into custody April 1 along with Ecclesiastes Ebenezer Samuels, 19, who reportedly shot at two men on South Dixie Highway. Samuels is being held on a $310,000 bond in the county jail. Judge Marni Bryson ordered the teens not have contact with each other.
A man told Lantana police he went to a home on Minnesota Street, south of Lantana Road and west of Federal Highway, to buy marijuana. A deal was arranged and a car containing three males, including Samuels, showed up at the home, according to police records.
Samuels, Nembhard and a third male — who managed to flee from police — convinced the man to enter their car, then robbed him at gunpoint as the vehicle sped away, records state. Samuels, who allegedly wielded the gun, then reached into the victim’s shorts and stole about $2,000 in cash.
The victim told police he had so much money on him because he’d just cashed in his income-tax return.
Around North Broadway, the victim was pushed out of the car.
Another man who had been with the victim before the robbery watched him tumble from the car and into the roadway, records state. He picked up the robbery victim and followed the suspects’ car along West Ocean Avenue.
When the vehicle carrying the victim got close, someone in the front seat of the other car, reportedly Samuels, fired two or three gunshots.
Another gunshot was fired after the chase turned onto South Dixie Highway. The victim’s car collided with the suspect’s vehicle, causing it to strike a third vehicle, police said.
After the second wreck, the three males in the suspect vehicle fled, records state. Samuels and Nembhard were arrested near the 200 block of South Dixie Highway, south of the Ocean Avenue Bridge. The third male escaped.
Samuels denied taking part in the shooting, robbery or kidnapping, but Nembhard told police he and the others had planned to rob the victim.
Records — and their tattoos — indicate the teens are part of the Hypoluxo Boys, which Lantana police called a “neighborhood clique.” Both live in suburban Boynton Beach.