HOUSTON – Three Worthing High School students are facing charges in connection with a robbery on campus last year.
Za’Terriun Bolden, 17; Jarmarcus Norris, 17; and Jamail Block, 19, are all charged with aggravated robbery.
"I heard about it in class," said Gabriel Monroe, a Worthing High School senior. "[Classmates] said [the suspects] robbed a lady, the janitor, took her keys."
According to court documents, Bolden and Block walked into a classroom after school on November 28, 2011, and confronted a custodial worker.
The worker told HISD police that the teens, who had clothing covering their faces, held her at gunpoint and demanded her keys to the school.
She said she handed the keys over to one of the suspects, and then the other pushed her into a chair and started to unfasten his pants. But that suspect ran out of the classroom when the first suspect told him to leave, the victim said.
Investigators said the worker identified those two suspects as Bolden and Block after viewing surveillance video.
Another school worker told investigators that he saw Bolden, Block and Norris in the school that afternoon.
Investigators said surveillance video showed the three in the hallway prior to the robbery. Bolden and Block can be seen ducking into the classroom while Norris waited outside, investigators said.
According to court documents, Bolden and Norris gave statements to police about the incident.
Bolden reportedly told investigators that he was at an after-school program that day when Block had the idea that they could steal the keys from the custodial worker.
Bolden said he and Block got some different clothes from Norris, so they could disguise themselves.
He said Norris told them he wasn’t going to go into the classroom with them, but that he would serve as a lookout in the hall.
After the robbery, Bolden said the three ran to a nearby grocery store, where they waited for about 10 minutes before going home.
Bolden reportedly returned the stolen keys to the school principal on November 30, 2011, after he was questioned about the robbery.
Norris told investigators that he was there that day with Bolden and Block, but initially denied having any knowledge about the robbery.
All three suspects later confessed and were suspended from Worthing, according to a district spokesman. Throughout the nearly three-month investigation, Bolden, Norris and Block attended the Harris County Juvenile Justice Alternative Program campus. The custodian involved in the robbery was not hurt.
"The custodian who was victimized in the incident is now working at another HISD campus," said Jason Spencer, spokesman for the Houston Independent School District. "She has been offered counseling services."
Charges were filed on February 7, 2012. Bolden and Norris were arrested two days later. As of Thursday afternoon, Block was not in custody.
