Shooting victim facing heroin charge

The alleged gang member shot two weeks ago in downtown Springfield is facing his own criminal charge in the case.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140625/NEWS02/706259955

Published June 25, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Shooting victim facing heroin charge By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The alleged gang member shot two weeks ago in downtown Springfield is facing his own criminal charge in the case. Joseph “Black” Atkinson, 19, was recently taken by private ambulance to an inpatient medical facility near his hometown of Union City, N.J. He had been hospitalized at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. “He left for New Jersey carrying a citation for possession of heroin,” Deputy State’s Attorney David Cahill told reporters following a scheduling hearing Monday for the man charged with shooting Atkinson. Leon Jiggetts, a convicted drug dealer and former New Jersey resident, is accused of shooting Atkinson on June 11 after Jiggetts and two accomplices went to an apartment belonging to Timothy Carleton and his wife Amanda Booker on Summer Street in Springfield. Police said they were looking for Atkinson because he had been telling people that one of the trio, a teenage drug dealer from Chester, had been cheating heroin buyers. Jiggetts is being held without bail at the Springfield jail on a charge of attempted second-degree murder. His new defense attorney, Dan Maguire, called in to a speakerphone at White River Junction criminal court Monday to discuss the case. Maguire said he and his client were looking over 76 pages worth of investigator’s notes and other court documents. Cahill said the state will provide more material soon. “A lot more interviews were done and some additional evidence was discovered,” he told Maguire and Judge Karen Carroll. Maguire said Jiggetts’ decision whether to waive his right to a speedy trial will depend on that material. The judge agreed to meet again in mid-July to discuss scheduling. No arraignment date for Atkinson on the heroin possession charge was available. Police have identified Atkinson as a member of the “Jersey Boys” drug gang, which has been the focus of much investigative activity in Springfield for the past couple years. He had been out of jail for a few weeks when he was shot. In April he made a plea deal to a felony count of selling cocaine in exchange for a one-year sentence that gave him credit for the time served since his arrest in March 2013. A year ago, Atkinson and another alleged Jersey Boys member, Richard “Scoob” Torruellas, had faced six felony charges, including first-degree unlawful restraint and using a deadly weapon to commit a crime. A woman told police the pair were forcing her to give them a ride. Police said they found a loaded handgun and safe containing crack cocaine, heroin, and thousands of dollars in cash in the back seat. But Judge Harold Eaton Jr. ruled that the police did not have enough cause to search the car, so the evidence of the seized items was thrown out.