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PLYMOUTH — Borough police have refiled charges against a teenager, alleging he took part in a home invasion where two other teens were threatened with firearms more than a year ago.
Jeffrey Mayers, 17, is charged as an adult. He faces felony robbery and burglary-related offenses for the alleged incident at 400 E. Main St. on Jan. 4, 2018.
Mayers was initially charged along with Ly-Inda Speers, 27, and Terrell Higgins, 19, both of Plymouth.
But police withdrew the case against Mayers at a preliminary hearing in Luzerne County Central Court last summer, while the cases against Speers and Higgins proceeded to county court.
Under a recent plea agreement with prosecutors, Speers pleaded guilty to criminal trespass while charges of criminal conspiracy, burglary, simple assault and terroristic threats were withdrawn. She is set to be sentenced April 17.
Higgins pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery and was sentenced in August to three to six years in state prison, court records say.
According to criminal complaints:
Two teen girls were on the porch of 400 E. Main St. when they were approached by Speers, Mayers, Higgins, a juvenile known to them and two other people they did not know. They said Speers asked for her brother’s ring.
As the teen girls told Speers they would get the ring, they re-entered the house and closed the door. Once inside, the teen girls told police the door was kicked open.
They yelled at Speers, Mayers and Higgins to get out, and they noticed Mayers and Higgins holding firearms. One girl who ran upstairs claimed Higgins held a firearm to her head, saying, “Respect my name.”
Multiple items were damaged, including windows. Stolen were a jewelry box containing $200, keys to a Jeep Cherokee, a tablet, a watch and an Amazon Kindle.
Mayers was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Thomas Malloy in Central Court on charges of robbery, burglary, criminal trespass, theft, harassment and two counts each of terroristic threats and simple assault. He was jailed for lack of $75,000 bail.