TESTIMONY: ‘PAY TO STAY OR GET BEAT UP’
Two accused of Oakland County jailhouse extortion
A case against two Oakland County Jail inmates accused of extorting money from a cellmate by threatening to beat him up was bound over to Oakland County Circuit Court on Friday.
At the conclusion of a preliminary exam, 50th District Judge Cynthia Walker said evidence presented showed probable cause to support charges against Antonio Fenn, 26, and Juwan Jamison, 29, for the alleged June 15, 2022 incident at the jail.
At the preliminary exam, the alleged victim, Xavier Musgrove, testified that Fenn and Jamison worked together to arrange a Cash App transaction for $100 from Musgrove’s wife to Fenn’s girlfriend in exchange for not assaulting him in the 10-man cell they were sharing at the Oakland County Jail. The threat came after Jamison called his girlfriend from the jail to find out what charges Musgrove was facing and learned it was for alleged criminal sexual conduct. Musgrove said he had lied to the two and said he was in jail on an assault charge after a deputy advised him that revealing a sex crime charge could lead to trouble with fellow inmates.
Once the truth was made known, Fenn told him to “pay to stay, or get beat up,” Musgrove testified.
He further testified that Jamison was “ready to beat me up,” but Fenn held him off when Musgrove said he would contact his wife and get her to make the Cash App transaction.
Musgrove said he told them he only had $100 to give, which they agreed to and said they’d “discuss other payments later.”
Musgrove also said he used the jailhouse computer tablet to send a text message about the threat to deputies, expecting one of them “to react soon…but they didn’t come get me till the next day.”
Musgrove’s wife testified via Zoom about receiving an email he sent from the jail, telling her to use Cash App to send the money to a woman — identified as Jamison’s girlfriend — on behalf of “Xavier.”
A recording of Jamison’s phone call to his girlfriend, which includes him threatening Musgrove, and evidence that the transaction was initiated through a computer tablet shared by inmates, then completed by Xavier’s wife to Jamison’s girlfriend, was also presented to the judge.
Another Oakland County Jail inmate who reportedly had been among the others in the 10-man cell at the time of the alleged threat was brought in to testify at the preliminary exam, but he claimed to not recognize Fenn or Jamison and was returned to jail.
Fenn and Jamison are charged with extortion and using a computer to commit a crime, and are scheduled for arraignment Dec. 15 before Oakland County Circuit Judge Martha Anderson.
Fenn came across Musgrove at the jail while awaiting trial for charges of assault with intent to murder and a firearms offense for an alleged 2020 incident in Oak Park. Jamison was jailed for convictions earlier this year for domestic violence, fleeing and eluding, and driving on a suspended license. His criminal history in Oakland County dates back 10 years, with convictions for retail fraud, drug possession, felonious assault, breaking and entering, receiving/concealing stolen property and weapons crimes, according to court records.
Musgrove’s criminal sexual conduct charges stem from an alleged 2017 incident in Novi.