40 YEAR PRISON TERMS FOR TWO YOUNG WOMEN CONVICTED OF ARMED ROBBERY AND ATTEMPTED MURDER AFTER SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH THEIR VICTIM
Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that two young Bronx women, ages 20 and 24, have been sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for their roles in the brutal armed robbery and attempted murder of a 41-year-old street vendor.
Malisha Blyden, 24, of 115 West 141st Street, Manhattan and Latisha Johnson, 20, of 421 East 168th Street, Manhattan were found guilty on June 11, 2007 of Attempted Murder in the 2nd degree and Robbery in the 1st degree. They were sentenced by State Supreme Court Justice Megan Talmer after more than a year of legal maneuvering over two unsuccessful defense motions to set aside the guilty verdict. The defendants also were convicted of Assault in the 1st degree, Burglary in the 1st degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd degree.
Justice Talmer sentenced Blyden and Johnson to concurrent terms of 25 years imprisonment for the attempted murder and 15 years imprisonment on each of two counts of burglary. The judge also sentenced the defendants to a second set of concurrent terms of 15 years imprisonment on each of two counts of robbery and one count of assault, and 5 years imprisonment on each of two counts of illegal gun possession. The 15 year sentence covering the second set of concurrent terms is to run consecutive to the 25 year sentence for a combined term of 40 years in state prison.
The crimes committed by Blyden and Johnson left their victim George Peseo in a coma for three weeks. His entire intestinal tract had to be removed, and he has undergone surgery 15 times to repair damage to his abdominal wall that was caused by gunshot wounds that he sustained during the armed robbery.
The incident occurred on September 6, 2005 at the victim’s apartment in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. The jurors heard testimony that Blyden and Johnson had set up the home invasion robbery after spending the night with Peseo whom they had met on a street corner in Harlem. While in the victim’s apartment for a sexual encounter, the two women mistook several large bags of Kassava flour in a kitchen cabinet and assumed that it was cocaine. The defendants later asked Peseo to drive them back to Manhattan where they set up the robbery with four male acquaintances. When the women returned to Peseo’s apartment under the guise that they had forgotten something, the four men forced their way inside.
Peseo was punched and kicked repeatedly and bound with duct tape while Blyden and Johnson yelled “kill him”. The apartment was ransacked, the defendants taking televisions, computers, a cellular telephone, clothing, jewelry and the bags of flour which they believed to be cocaine. The victim was shot once in the chest and abdomen and stuffed in a closet before the defendants fled.
Blyden and Johnson were arrested once they were identified after Peseo emerged from a coma. The women’s male accomplices were also arrested based on information developed during the investigation.
Co-defendants Terrell Davis, 28, of Manhattan, Kashawn Rowson, 22, of Manhattan, Jonathan Casanova, 28, of the Bronx, and Jeffrey Graves, 21, of the Bronx are still awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder, assault, gang assault, robbery, burglary, criminal possession of a weapon, conspiracy, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. All defendants are scheduled to appear in court on December 12, 2008 in part 20 before State Supreme Court Judge Lawrence Bernstein.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Piergrossi and Assistant District Attorney Eliza Filipowski of the Trial Division.
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