Charge dropped against driver in Windsor robbery

Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.

Feb. 15—A Hartford Superior Court prosecutor has dropped a conspiracy charge against the man who drove a robbery suspect to and from the area of a Windsor convenience store late on Oct. 17 when the robbery took place.

The defendant, Calvin Douglas Joiner, 50, of New Britain had been free on $20,000 bond while facing a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery in the holdup of the Sunoco station at 446 Bloomfield Ave. in Windsor.

Joiner parked in a church lot down the street from the gas station. A witness followed Joiner's car from the scene and described what was happening to a 911 dispatcher.

CHARGE DROPPED

DEFENDANT: Calvin Douglas Joiner, 50, of New Britain

CHARGE: Conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery of Sunoco station at 446 Bloomfield Ave. in Windsor on Oct. 17

PROBLEM WITH CASE: Joiner denied knowing robbery was planned.

State police stopped the car on an exit from Interstate 84 westbound, and Windsor police arrested all three occupants.

Samuel Semidey, 39, who is listed in a police report as being homeless in Windsor, is accused of committing the robbery. He is also charged in two other robberies and a number of other crimes and is being held in lieu of $200,000 bond at the New Haven Correctional Center.

Joiner told police that Semidey had told him when he parked in the church lot that he was going to pick up money from his girlfriend so he could pay Joiner gas money, according to a report by Windsor police Officer Ryan Wilder.

Joiner said Semidey was out of breath when he returned to the car but added that Semidey and another passenger, Jimmy Lee Mangini of Wethersfield, told him not to worry about anything, with Semidey telling him to get on the highway, the officer reported.

Joiner said he had no idea Semidey was going to rob anyone or that he had a gun with him, according to the officer.

Manchester lawyer Dennis McMahon, who represented Joiner in the case, said prosecutor Chris Pelosi dropped, or "nolled," the case against his client. McMahon said he and Pelosi agreed that the case against Semidey was stronger than the case against Joiner.

McMahon said it is rare to get a nolle when a defendant is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, as Joiner was.

Pelosi dropped a similar charge against Mangini, the back seat passenger in the car. Like Joiner, Mangini told police he didn't know Semidey had robbed the gas station, according to the officer.

Semidey told police that "the guy in the red hat had nothing to do with it," according to the officer, who said that Mangini had a red hat in his possession.

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