Four face charges in extortion plot

August 27, 2008 06:56 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Jeannie M. Nuss, Globe Correspondent

Four people were indicted today on attempted murder and other charges in connection with a “multifaceted extortion plot” that almost killed a man earlier this summer, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Domonic Campbell, 20, and Tyon Feaster, 24, of Cambridge; and Joseph Caldwell, 25, and Jillian Jacques, 23, of Boston, were charged with aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, kidnapping with intent to commit extortion, arson, and attempted murder, prosecutors said.

On June 1, a 24-year-old man from Boston's Allston neighborhood, whose name has not been released by authorities, was allegedly held captive at gunpoint after Jacques lured him into her apartment on Glenville Avenue in Allston, said district attorney's spokesman Jake Wark.

The four defendants instructed the victim's relatives to give $5,000 to two women at the Dudley MBTA station across town, Wark said. The victim’s family raised $4,280 in cash and contacted Boston Police who arrested the two women, he said.

Charges against those two women, Cheerley Chevalier, 30, of Taunton, and Farrah Girault, 29, of Roxbury, were dropped in Brighton Municipal Court because the women were unaware of their roles in the plot, prosecutors said.

The victim had sold small amounts of marijuana to Jacques in the past and the four believed he could produce larger quantities, Wark said.

When the victim entered the apartment, the three men demanded that he order marijuana delivered to the apartment. The trio beat the victim and demanded money when he said he was unable to deliver the drugs, prosecutors said. They also threatened to cut off his fingers, mutlitate his genitals, and kill him.

After the victim said he could only raise $1,000, the four called the victim’s brother and threatened to shoot him if the family did not deliver the ransom, Wark said.

Boston firefighters who were called to Jacques's apartment complex found the victim tied to a chair with electrical cords, suffering from serious facial injuries, and bleeding from his eyes, Wark said. He was taken to Beth Israel Hospital for treatment.

The four defendants are being held on bails ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 and are scheduled to appear in Brighton Municipal Court on Sept. 26.

The victim has not been charged for drug possession, Wark said.