3 held for playground robbery
Joseph Wollam was walking on Cunningham Street in Butler, having just cashed his paycheck at a nearby convenience store on the night of Aug. 29, when a car pulled up beside him.
He thought he heard one of the three men inside call out his name. He got into the vehicle.
It would be a decision he would soon regret.
Driven to the city's East Christie Avenue playground, the 35-year-old Wollam recalled, he was pummeled by the trio and stripped not only of his money and watch, but his shorts, too.
“They were hitting me with fists; they were kicking the hell out of me,” he testified Monday at the preliminary hearings for the three accused assailants.
District Judge William Fullerton subsequently ordered the defendants — John L. Chandler, 19, and Michael L. Hutchinson, 21, both of Butler; and Andrew J. Hoy, 22, of Butler Township — held for trial on robbery, conspiracy, aggravated assault and theft charges.
Wollam told the court that he suffered a fractured orbital bone, badly cut lips, a severely swollen face and several chipped teeth in the attack shortly after 1 a.m. He said he has not recovered from his injuries.
But the attorneys for the defendants challenged the alleged victim's account of what happened that night. During questioning of Wollam, they even asked if he had tried to buy drugs from their clients.
Wollam admitted that he had never seen the defendants before that night. He claimed he mistakenly got into their car.
“Hey yo, get in,” one of three men in the vehicle yelled out, he testified. But at the time, he mistook “yo” for “Joe.”
He said it is common for friends of his to give him rides in and out of town.
He said the suspects drove him to the playground a couple of miles from where they picked him up. But he denied knowing that's where they were going.
Chandler's attorney, Armand Cingolani, asked Wollam if he inquired about buying heroin or cocaine from the defendants.Hutchinson's attorney, public defender Maura Palumbi, asked him if he used any racial slurs. Her client and Hoy are both black.“No,” Wollam replied to the questions.He told Palumbi that he voluntarily got out of the car at the playground.“Gimme your money,” he testified the defendants demanded. “I said, 'Here, take it.'” He said he offered them $80 he had in his cargo shorts.But, he testified, the suspects surrounded him and beat him.“I didn't even make any defensive moves,” Wollam said. “I just wanted out of there.”The suspects went through the pockets of his shorts looking for more money. They eventually took the shorts, which contained a cell phone. They also took his $300 watch before driving away.What the suspects didn't know, Wollam testified, is that he had $300 in one of his shoes. He had placed the money there after leaving the store.Patrolman Marc Howard said he was called to the playground at 1:16 a.m. He found Wollam bleeding on the right side of his face. His right eye was swollen shut.He was unable to provided much of a description of his attackers.“I was very disoriented when (the defendants) left,“ Wollam told Hoy's court-appointed attorney, Michael Jewart. “I was dizzy.”He was eventually taken to Butler Memorial Hospital for treatment of his injuries.
Police Sgt. Jeremy Walters by chance came upon the suspects about an hour later after stopping their car for speeding on West Wayne Street. When the officers got to the car, which pulled over on Center Avenue, he smelled marijuana.Police would soon identify the trio as the suspects in the alleged playground robbery.Walters testified that Hoy and Hutchinson both had fresh blood on their clothing. Hutchinson acknowledged the blood came from the earlier confrontation, the officer said.While being questioned at the scene of the stop, Chandler offered up a more incriminating admission, according to Walters.“He said they rolled a guy at the playground,” Walters testified. In street slang, he noted, to “roll” someone means to “rob” him.Chandler later declined to talk to police, like his alleged accomplices.Police found the defendants with a small amount of money, including a 20-dollar bill with blood on it, Walters said. But they never recovered Wollam's watch, phone or shorts.Hoy and Hutchinson remain in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail each. Chandler is being held there on $50,000 bail.
