Armed man in scuffle with police sentenced
Worcester resident gets at least 18 months in jail
WORCESTER — A Worcester man is set to serve at least 18 months in jail after he pleaded guilty Thursday to charges stemming from a March 2020 scuffle with police officers over a stolen firearm.
Jomani Kelly, 23, pleaded guilty in Worcester Superior Court to two charges of assault and battery on a police officer and one charge of resisting arrest.
The charges date to March 3, 2020, when officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation near Pilgrim Avenue.
On that night, Kelly, who at the time was 18, was driving a sport utility vehicle suspected to have been the origin of the shots.
No injuries were reported from the shots, but they did trigger the ShotSpotter system, which alerts police to gunfire.
Officers investigating the ShotSpotter signal followed the SUV shortly after midnight, ordering the car to pull over after it failed to stop at a stop sign on Southbridge Street.
As officers approached, they saw Kelly in the back seat “frantically moving his hands as if to hide something,” prompting them to ask him to stop moving and show his hands, according to court records.
After Kelly refused to comply, the officers removed him from the SUV to frisk him, at which point Kelly shoved an officer and ran across traffic on Southbridge Street, according to court records.
Hot on the 18-year-old’s trail, the officers eventually caught up with him and brought him to the ground.
As Kelly began to reach for his waistband, the officers noticed a handgun.
Even after the officers were able to pull the gun away and handcuff him, Kelly kicked the officers and continued to struggle, although to no avail, according to court records.
Following the arrest, officers also found several bags of marijuana and an open bottle of alcohol in the SUV, records show.
In the five-charge guilty plea on Thursday, which also included two unlicensed gun charges, a prosecutor agreed to the dismissal of a sixth charge, carrying ammunition without an FID card.
Judge William Ritter accepted the request of Kelly’s defense to be sentenced to 21⁄2 years in prison, although he could serve 18 months, with the balance to be suspended for a two-year probationary period, according to a spokesperson for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.
Early’s office added that a prosecutor had asked for a four- to five-year state prison sentence with a two-year period of probation to begin upon Kelly’s release.