Suspects jailed after police say shoplifting turns into robbery
May 28—Brandon Lee Freeman and Alexandra Baron had each been charged in several petty larceny cases and had managed to stay out of prison until May 19, when police say Freeman assaulted a clerk during a shoplifting at the Mobil station at 2997 Main St. in Glastonbury.
A larceny accomplished through the threat or use of force is a robbery. So Glastonbury police charged Freeman, 41, who has listed his address as an apartment at 40 Henry St. in Windsor, with second-degree robbery, a felony.
Police believe Baron was an accomplice in the shoplifting, and she was charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery.
As of Friday, Freeman was an inmate at the Hartford Correctional Center, held in lieu of $25,000 bond, online records show. Baron, 42, of New Britain, was an inmate at the York Correctional Institution in East Lyme, and held in lieu of $5,000 bond, records show.
The gas station clerk doesn't appear to have been injured.
Freeman is charged with second-degree breach of peace rather than with assault, which would require an injury to the victim, under Connecticut law.
Both Freeman and Baron are also facing misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and use of drug paraphernalia in the incident. Court records in Freeman's case show that police seized a "small rock of crack cocaine" in a plastic bag and a suspected crack pipe.
When Freeman appeared in Manchester Superior Court the day after the incident, Judge Karyl L. Carrasquilla directed prison officials to provide him with detoxification services, court records show.
Freeman, who has a long criminal record, is facing five other larceny cases, two of which also include forgery charges, online court records show. The incidents at issue in the pending cases occurred in Manchester, Glastonbury, Bloomfield, and Wethersfield, according to the records.
Most of the larceny charges Freeman is facing are misdemeanor counts of sixth-degree larceny, involving stolen property worth up to $500, the records show. But the Wethersfield case includes a felony count of third-degree larceny, which can involve theft or possession of stolen property worth up to $10,000.
Another shoplifting case in which Freeman and Baron were charged occurred Jan. 31 at the Shop Rite supermarket at 214 Spencer St. in Manchester.
Baron has been convicted of sixth-degree larceny and fined $200 in that case, online court records show. Freeman is still facing charges of sixth-degree larceny and possession of a controlled substance. The items seized from Freeman included 0.21 grams of PCP, according to a report by Manchester police Officer Jackson Reed.
A judge also ordered detoxification for Freeman in that case, while ordering him to stay out of Shop Rite, Manchester Superior Court records show.
Freeman and Baron were accused of stealing items worth almost $323, including candles and food, from Shop Rite, Reed reported.
For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.
