3 held for court in armed robbery case
A 28-year-old woman Monday described being lured to a neighbor's home at her Butler apartment building and robbed at knife-point.
“Before I knew anything,” Tiffany Mullen testified at a preliminary hearing, “I had a machete held to my neck.”
She recounted being cut as she struggled to get the machete away from her, and having $210 snatched out of her bra.
District Judge William Fullerton following testimony at the hearing ordered three defendants held for court on charges in the alleged armed holdup.
The trio — Tiffany Ann Crawford, 31, Michelle L. Kaiser, 46, and Anthony F. Perez, 40, all of Butler — remain in the Butler County Prison.
Mullen said that she believed it was about 11:30 p.m. June 25 when she got a call from Kaiser, asking her to come to Kaiser's apartment on East Wayne Street, police said.
The victim also lives with her fiancé in an upstairs apartment in the same building.
Kaiser had requested that Mullen come and pick up her television set, which she had previously loaned to her neighbor.
But moments after walking into Kaiser's apartment, Mullen testified, she saw Crawford, armed with a machete, and Perez, who also had a knife.
“I was struggling to get the machete from my throat,” she said. “They were trying to take me to the bathroom. That's how I received the cuts.”
Police described Mullen's injuries as small cuts to her neck, left thumb and left middle finger. She received stitches at Butler Memorial Hospital for some of the cuts.During the ordeal, she said she was robbed of the money she carried in her bra.But on cross-examination, she was unable to say which of the defendants took the money. She also could not say who forced her into the bathroom.In the bathroom, Mullen recounted, Crawford continued to hold the machete to her neck. She said Crawford also made her text her boyfriend to tell him what was happening to her.But that's not all. She testified that she and Crawford smoked crack cocaine in the bathroom.During questioning by the defendants' attorneys, she denied having consumed drugs before the alleged robbery and assault.Mullen, however, admitted using drugs with some of the defendants in the past.She said that Crawford that night eventually walked her upstairs to her apartment. Once there, Mullen rushed inside before her boyfriend slammed the door shut. She said she immediately called 911.
According to court documents, police were called at 2:06 a.m. June 26.The three defendants fled before police got there. But officers moments later stopped their pickup truck as part of an unrelated burglary investigation.While speaking to the trio, Patrolman Cheryl Litz testified, police noticed a machete in the back seat. Officers removed it for their own safety.It was only then, Litz said, that a call on the police radio identified the defendants as being wanted for the robbery that had just happened.Police later got a search warrant for Kaiser's apartment. Litz said they found blood in the bathroom as well as a bloody towel in or near the bedroom.Crawford is charged with robbery, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, simple assault and possession of a prohibited offensive weapon. She is in the county prison on $100,000 bail.Kaiser is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and criminal use of a communication facility. She is being held on $45,000 bail.Perez, who is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, is behind bars on $20,000 bail.
