Shooting probe: Two more suspects deny charges

Stolen drugs may have played a role in the shooting of an alleged teenage gang member in Springfield earlier this month, according to court records released Friday.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140628/NEWS02/706289937

Published June 28, 2014 in the Rutland Herald SPRINGFIELD SHOOTING PROBE: Two more suspects deny charges By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Stolen drugs may have played a role in the shooting of an alleged teenage gang member in Springfield earlier this month, according to court records released Friday. Two other local teenagers, Brandon Adams-Smith, 16, of Chester and Alexander Jillson-Corbosiero, 18, of Springfield were arraigned Friday on charges related to the shooting and released from White River Junction criminal court. Adams-Smith stood at the defense table flanked by his father and defense attorney Michael Mace, who entered innocent pleas to felony charges of burglary and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and to a misdemeanor count of providing false information to police. Jillson-Corbosiero pleaded innocent to felony counts of aiding in an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aiding in a home invasion, acting as an accessory after the fact and a misdemeanor count of petty larceny. The actual shooting and wounding of Joseph Atkinson, 19, has been attributed to Leon Jiggetts of Newark, N.J., who is in prison awaiting trial for attempted second-degree murder and a slate of other charges. Atkinson is recovering in a medical facility in Union City, N.J., and is facing heroin charges of his own. In new affidavits filed to support the charges against Adams-Smith and Jillson-Corbosiero, police said stolen drugs led to the June 11 confrontation and shooting at an apartment on Summer Street in Springfield. Police said Adams-Smith was with Jiggetts and Jabbar Chandler — both from New Jersey and both owning long criminal histories including drug convictions — when the trio burst into the apartment of Timothy Carleton and Amanda Booker, looking for Atkinson. Police said Jiggetts shot Atkinson with a .45-caliber Springfield Armory handgun, stolen from Jillson-Corbosiero’s stepfather. Holden wrote in an affidavit released Friday that Jillson-Corbosiero told detectives he was selling heroin for Jabbar Chandler — heroin he knew “was stolen from Atkinson.” “Corbosiero advised he has known Chandler for the last two months and admitted that he sold a thousand bags of heroin for him in the past week,” Holden wrote. Holden said that when Adams-Smith was interviewed by detectives he told them that the trio had split up in the moments after they burst into Carleton’s apartment, but after he heard a gun shot he saw Atkinson lying on the floor bleeding and wrestling with Jiggetts “over a handgun.” “Jiggetts then told (Adams-Smith) to hit Atkinson with the bat,” Holden wrote, “Adams-Smith knew Atkinson was already shot but struck him in the thigh with the bat anyway.” Holden said Adams-Smith initially told police he threw the bat into the river following the attack. However, days later a witness came forward in Bellows Falls who told police she saw a man hiding the bat under some bushes near a playground from where police later recovered it. Judge Karen Carroll told Adams-Smith she would release him into the custody of an aunt who said she would supervise him at her house under strict curfew conditions. Also Friday, federal officials said they filed multiple felony drug sales charges against Jahlil “Skillz” Marsh of Bellows Falls, whom the trio drove to see after the shooting.