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Lanasia "Lay" Smith, 24 (top left above), sent ex-con Jancarlos "M" Rodriguez, 23 (bottom right), "a picture of a safe located in the residence" hours before the June 28, 2022 robbery, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Smith then left the front door unlocked for Rodriguez and two cohorts -- fellow ex-con Jahad "Hadie" Foxworth, 25, and Jamere "Rebels" Dixon, 23 -- the U.S. attorney said.
The trio entered the home a half hour or so after midnight, pointed weapons at two occupants and stole money, jewelry, credit cards, drugs and more, Sellinger said.
Driving the getaway car, he said, was teacher's aide Tyra Jones, 24.
Jones, Rodriguez and Smith "were later seen on surveillance footage attempting to use the stolen credit cards at gas stations and a convenience store in Paterson," Sellinger said.
Bergen County prosecutor’s detectives and Saddle Brook police amassed a mountain of evidence that positively identified the defendants and two other accused accomplices. They collected surveillance video, cellphone records with tower locations, business records, police reports and New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles records.
And they didn’t stop there.
The investigators also tapped social media accounts and information provided by an automated license plate reader that helped identify the getaway car, according to a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack.
Sellinger's office then (literally) turned it into a federal case. His staff charged all five defendants with conspiring to commit Hobbs Act robbery and conspiring to carry and use a gun in a violent crime.
A federal magistrate judge in Newark released both women on secured $100,000 bonds on Wednesday, Feb. 28, while ordering that Dixon, Foxworth, and Rodriguez remain detained.
An Elmwood Park couple who were among those originally charged by local authorities weren't mentioned as part of the federal case.
SEE: Seven Charged In Armed Saddle Brook Home Invasion
Sellinger credited special agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Newark Field Division, along with New Jersey State Police, Saddle Brook police, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office, for the investigation leading to the charges.
Handling the case for the government are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jake A. Nasar of Sellinger's Organized Crime and Gangs Unit and Farhana C. Melo of the OCDETF/Narcotics Unit in Newark.
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