Two men and a woman were ordered by a San Francisco judge Wednesday to stand trial on charges stemming from a home invasion robbery in the city’s Parkside neighborhood in June.
Jerome Hendon, 31, Lemar Wanto, 33, and Denika Govan, 22, were arrested shortly after the robbery, which occurred a little before midnight on June 24 at a home in the 2100 block of Vicente Street.
Two residents, a 71-year-old man and 66-year-old woman, had just arrived at their house when they heard a crash in the front of the home and saw two men enter through the front door, police said.
The intruders, believed to be Hendon and Wanto, were wearing masks and Hendon held a gun to the man’s head and demanded money, prosecutors and police said.
The victim complied and the pair fled in a getaway car, a blue Honda Civic allegedly driven by Govan.
However, a neighbor heard the commotion and called police, and officers responded and arrested the trio.
Hendon, a convicted felon, was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, elder abuse, use of a firearm, burglary, false imprisonment and resisting arrest, according to the district attorney’s office.
Wanto was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, elder abuse and false imprisonment, and Govan was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of burglary, prosecutors said.
All three pleaded not guilty to the charges last month, but were ordered by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charles Haines to stand trial on the charges after a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
The trio remain in custody–Hendon on $3 million bail, Wanto on $530,000 bail and Govan on $300,000 bail–and will return to court on Sept. 15 to be formally arraigned on the charges, prosecutors said.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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