1 Video & 1 Photo
Security Footage Of The Theft
Baseemah Davis was one of four thieves who stole more than $95,000 worth of purses and handbags from the Balanciaga store in East Hampton Village in March. She pleaded guilty to grand larceny on Tuesday.
The first of four defendants in the theft of more than $95,000 worth of purses and handbags from an East Hampton Village store in March pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court in Riverside on Tuesday, August 16.
Baseemah Davis, 34, pleaded guilty to grand larceny and possession of stolen property, both felonies, related to the theft of the bags from the Balenciaga store on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village on March 3, as well as a misdemeanor possession of drugs. She will be sentenced on September 23 by County Court Judge Anthony Senft.
Two of her three co-defendants, Ali Harris and Wazir Rodgers, are due in court this Friday. Davis, Harris and Rodgers are currently in custody, as is co-defendant Jamal Johns. All four are from Newark, New Jersey. Davis, Rodgers and Johns have all been in custody since their arrests, unable to make the $50,000 bail Senft set for them on March 16.
While the others have criminal records, Harris did not, and he was ordered released by Senft on supervised release to be monitored by the probation department. In July, the department reported that he violated the terms of his release, causing Senft to set a $50,000 bail amount on Harris, as well. He has since been in county jail, unable to post the bail.
A fifth person involved in the theft, a woman, is still at large and has not been identified by the police. At about 1:30 in the afternoon on March 3, she entered the couture store wearing a pink ski mask. She was the only “customer” there at the moment.
She walked around the store and looked at various handbags, District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a press release, then asked an employee to check to see if the store carried a certain shoe in her size. The moment the employee did so, Davis rushed in, allegedly with her co-defendants, and went on a snatch-and-grab of handbags on display, The entire incident lasted about 30 seconds.
Davis, who admitted her part of the robbery in court when she pleaded guilty, then ran out of the store, allegedly with the other four, all piling into a waiting Dodge Durango and making off with $93,000 in merchandise.
An East Hampton Village Police officer took up pursuit of the Durango but broke it off when the fleeing vehicle accelerated to speeds over 100 mph, weaving across traffic lanes.
A State Police officer spotted the Durango exiting Sunrise Highway toward County Route 111 and Manorville and the Long Island Expressway. He pursued the vehicle, “but that pursuit also had to be terminated due to safety concerns as the Durango was traveling at speeds in excess of 100 mph and was observed veering into oncoming lanes of traffic,” the DA’s press release stated.
However, the trooper saw that smoke was now coming from the Durango and followed at a safe distance.
The Durango entered the LIE at exit 70, only to exit at 69. The now broken down Durango was driven onto the shoulder. Three of the occupants fled, including Davis. They were all picked up after a police search of the wooded area.
If this was a road trip for the Newark residents, it allegedly was not Davis’s first to Long Island.
She has been arrested three times on Long Island since Christmas Eve. All involved felonies. The other two cases are still open in Nassau County.
On Christmas Eve, at about the same time of day as the theft at the Balneciaga store, she entered the Nieman Marcus store in Garden City, took a red jacket off of a mannequin at a Moncler boutique valued at $1,983, and walked out of the store wearing it, police said. She was arrested almost immediately.
Then, on January 20, at the Americana Mall in Roslyn, a Nassau County Police officer made a traffic stop of a 2021 BMW, in which Davis was one of three passengers, police said. The car allegedly had phony temporary New Jersey plates.
Police said they searched the car, finding numerous burglar’s tools, as well as drugs.
In Davis’s handbag, police said, they found a pill jar for a different medication containing 59 tablets of oxycodone.
A search of a toiletries bag police said also belonged to Davis turned up several other drugs requiring a prescription, as well as a pair of sneakers that still had the Manhasset Marshall’s store tags on it, from where they had allegedly been stolen.
Davis is facing a charge of felony narcotics possession with intent to sell, along with two other felonies, along with numerous misdemeanor charges.
