5 Arrested for robbery of security guard, illegal gambling business
Daytona Fl Sept 14 2020
A woman who took part in a Palm Coast shooting during a drug-deal-gone-bad that left a man disabled two years ago was arrested in Daytona Beach over the weekend for robbing an illegal gambling place at gunpoint, police said.
Jimaya Baker, 19, was charged with principal to armed robbery on Friday, her arrest report shows. She was being held in The Volusia County Branch Jail on Monday without bail.
Daytona Beach police said that on Aug. 29, Baker and five men entered the illegal gambling establishment at 833 Mason Ave. around 3:10 a.m. and robbed it at gunpoint.
The group initially arrived to play one of the machines in the business, as they usually did, but their behavior that night made one of the business operators uncomfortable prompting him to go to his car to get his firearm, police said.
As Jordan Rivers, who recognized Baker’s group as being from Bunnell, returned to the business, one of Baker’s group standing outside the business pointed a gun at Rivers’ head while another grabbed the firearm from his pocket, investigators said.
During the robbery of Rivers, a shot was fired but no one was hit, police said.
The group then entered the business and ordered everyone to the ground. At gunpoint, Baker and the five men robbed the security guard, customers and employees of several items, investigators said.
Baker and the five other suspects demanded money, cellphones and any other item of value, police said.
The security guard, James Brooks, had two of his necklaces stolen, police said.
Another operator of the business, Melaneese Bradley, was uncooperative with police and said she did not want to press charges, investigators aid.
After the robbery, Brooks followed the suspects to a Holly Hill apartment where police found the getaway car. A search warrant was executed on the car on Wednesday and information revealed that Baker had been stopped in the vehicle by police in June, a report states.
Inside the car, police also found a school schedule belonging to a Flagler Palm Coast High School student known to have a violent criminal history, investigators said.
On Thursday, Brooks was shown a photo lineup as part of the investigation. At the police station, Brooks handed police a news article that had a photo of Baker, and said she was one of the group that robbed the illegal gambling place, police said.
The newspaper clipping was about an armed robbery in Flagler County with which Baker was charged, police said.
In February, Baked was arrested by Flagler County sheriff’s deputies in connection with an Oct. 16, 2018, drug-deal-gone-bad shooting that left Carl Saint-Felix, 22, shot in the back of the neck. Saint-Felix was left disabled by the gunshot during the botched robbery, investigators said.
Three other suspects were arrested in Saint-Felix’s shooting.
At the time of her arrest in February, Baker was jailed in Flagler County on $50,000 bail.
