MAN, WOMAN CHARGED IN PICKUP-TURNED-ROBBERY Feb. 27, 2008 A Roxbury man and the mother of his 7-month-old child were charged last week with robbing a Brockton resident at gunpoint in the elevator of the woman’s South End apartment building after she and a friend brought him home from a nightclub. LASHAWN GONZALES, 28 (D.O.B. 7/27/79), was arraigned in the Boston Municipal Court Feb. 21 on single counts of armed and masked robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawfully carrying a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, and discharging a firearm within 500’ of a building for his role in the 5:00 a.m. incident. Judge Eleanor Coe Sinnott ordered him held on $250,000 cash bail. The next day, Suffolk prosecutors charged VIVIAN ROBLES, 27 (D.O.B. 11/9/80) – in whose building the attack took place – with one count of armed robbery in connection with the same incident. Sinnott imposed $100,000 bail. On the early morning of Feb. 21, Boston Police officers responded to a call for an armed robbery in an elevator at an East Brookline Street apartment building with shots fired and an injured victim. Upon arrival, officers observed a bullet hole in the elevator’s back wall, as well as blood and an empty shell casing inside. As they secured the scene, a man later identified as Gonzales walked into the building and stated that he was visiting his girlfriend, though he claimed not to know her apartment number. He agreed to use a different elevator. After sealing the elevator, officers then went to Robles’ apartment, where they found her, her female friend, the 22-year-old victim, and the man whom officers had just seen downstairs. The victim, whose face was bruised and bloodied, told officers that he had met Robles and the other woman at a nightclub and that they had invited him back to Robles’ apartment. The victim also told officers almost a dozen times that he believed Gonzales to be the man who had robbed him. The victim said he and the women arrived at Robles’ building and got into the elevator, in which a heavyset male wearing a mask and gloves was already standing. After the elevator doors closed, the victim told police, the masked man pulled out a gun. The victim told officers that the assailant demanded his money, taking his cell phone, gold chain, and a wallet containing about $140 in cash. The masked man then struck him in the head with the gun, told him to face the back wall of the elevator, and fired a single shot from the firearm, which was so close to the victim’s face that it kicked back into his face and split his lip. The victim stated clearly and repeatedly that Gonzales was of the same height, build, and appearance of the gunman. While the victim was speaking to officers, Gonzales repeatedly asked if he could leave to check on a child he had been babysitting at a Harrison Avenue residence. Officers did not allow him to leave but sent a unit to check on the child’s well-being. In the course of a protective sweep of that address, officers discovered $140 cash, the victim’s cell phone, and his social security card. It was later determined that Gonzales lived at that residence with the other female and that the infant was Robles’ child. Based on the victim’s statements and the stolen property recovered from Gonzales’ apartment, the officers placed Gonzales under arrest. An investigation by District 4 detectives developed additional evidence that Robles was working in concert with Gonzales in a bid to rob the victim, and she was subsequently taken into custody as well. Gonzales was represented by attorney Denis Frauenhofer and Robles was represented by attorney Lucy Rivera. Both are scheduled to return to court on March 19. Return to the Press Releases page.