Teens in spree charged as adults

Published 9:31 pm Monday, June 5, 2006

Four Athens teenagers who went on a violent spree Friday night will be tried as adults, police said Monday.

Det.-Sgt. Trevor Harris said the four are each charged with three counts of robbery — one count of first-degree robbery and two counts each of second-degree robbery.

“The law says they will automatically be tried as adults if they commit a Class A felony and are between the ages of 16-18,” Harris said. “All four have been transferred to the Limestone County Jail, and since Monday was a state holiday, apparently have not been before a judge to set bond.”

Those arrested include Letajea Coffman, 18, of 515 S. Hine St., Athens; Jessica Thompson, 16, of 1012 Highland St., Athens; her brother Joe Louis Thompson II, 17, of 1012 Highland St., Athens; and Darius Johnson, 16, of 135 Royal Drive, Madison.

The teens are accused of attacking three people in separate incidents and taking their money, said Lt.-Det. Floyd Johnson. Two victims were treated at Athens-Limestone Hospital, including a Domino’s pizza delivery woman and a man attacked near his home.

The teens were arrested after investigators noticed empty Domino’s wings boxes that were included in the order the attacked woman had been trying to deliver. The wing boxes were in a trash can near the picnic tables the teens occupied at Lincoln-Bridgeforth Park, said Capt. Mary Bruce.

The first-degree robbery charge stemmed from the fact that the teens pretended to have a weapon during one of the attacks.

Bruce said boredom led to the teens’ violent spree. The group began the attacks at about 10 p.m., hitting a man in the head as he was walking to his car on Elm Street; robbing a second man was robbed near his home on Jefferson Street and robbing the delivery woman on Pryor Street, Bruce said. The woman was hit with fists and kicked, he said.

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