Prison for man in knife threat case

Jabari Santi-Baird, 21, pleads guilty to terroristic threats in October incident

NORRISTOWN » A 21-yearold Lansdale man has been sentenced to incarceration after admitting to threatening another individual with a knife during an altercation over a bicycle in Upper Gwynedd in October, according to court records.

Jabari Santi-Baird, of the 100 block of South Chestnut Street, pleaded guilty to first-degree misdemeanor terroristic threats in a plea deal in which prosecutors withdrew counts of second-degree misdemeanor simple assault, first-degree misdemeanor possession of a weapon and summary harassment, records show.

Santi-Baird was sentenced to one to two years behind bars and ordered to have no contact with the victim in the case.

Upper Gwynedd police had said in an affidavit of probable cause that shortly before midnight on Oct. 6, cops responded to Ivy Lane for a reported bike theft and spoke to Santi-Baird, who said his bicycle had been stolen after a physical fight with the thief.

The ensuing investigation at the scene revealed that Santi-Baird had been at an outdoor party in the area with a bicycle he possessed when another person he was acquainted with came up to him and said the bike belonged to the person’s brother. An argument escalated to a fight in which Santi-Baird was struck in his face and the back of his head before the other person left with the bike, police said.

Cops contacted the person who took the bicycle by phone, and he stated that he’d approached Santi-Baird after seeing the bike and started asking him questions about it, at which point Santi-Baird started pushing him and then pulled a knife on him, police said. Another partygoer intervened to keep Santi-Baird away from the victim, who then left with the bike.

Other witnesses at the scene corroborated the victim’s account of the incident, saying that SantiBaird was the aggressor and had said to the individual “Imma cut you” while advancing on him with the open knife, police said.

Cops asked Santi-Baird about the knife and he claimed he threw it in a yard and didn’t have it on him, but after being frisked, officers found a folding knife with a partially serrated blade in the back pocket of his pants that matched the weapon witnesses had seen him threaten the victim with, according to the affidavit.

Further investigation determined that the bicycle involved in the incident had been reported stolen to Lansdale police in January of 2015, according to court documents. However, the owner of the bike did not express interest in any prosecution relating to the theft, police said.

Santi-Baird is currently incarcerated at Graterford prison, records indicated Monday.