The trio of twenty-somethings from Washington D.C. — Christopher Tyler, Jowan Plummer and Mustafa Lewis-Hampton — stood before the bench five days after allegedly breaking into Lola Saratoga and stealing $35,000 in goods.
They were each previously arraigned on a medley of charges over the weekend. None of them are eligible for pre-trial detention under New York’s controversial bail-reform law of 2019, according to the judge. “Mr.
Lewis, as you just heard and as we discussed on Saturday, if I could have under all those circumstances, it would have been quite reasonable for me to set bail, right?” Wait asked after making similar remarks to the other two defendants. “But I wasn't allowed to,” he continued. Lewis-Hampton, 22, along with Tyler and Plummer, both 23, broke into the Broadway shop by smashing the storefront with a crowbar shortly before 5:30 a.
m. Saturday, according to court documents. They were found around Exit 11 after attempting to make a getaway on the Northway.
At one point along the way, investigators claimed, handbags were thrown out of the vehicle. The latter action resulted in a charge of tampering with evidence — one of seven charges leveled against the three. It marked the high-end retailers’ third alleged burglary since December, including one smash-and-grab at the shop’s second location in Guilderland.
An arrest warrant was issued earlier this month for a different Washington, D.C., man, 34-year-old Toron M.
Melton, who law enforcemen.