By KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Three teenagers, including two females, remained jailed Monday, after they were charged with armed robbery and carjacking a truck that a family used to transport a relative to dialysis treatments.

Two remained in the Orient Road Jail on Monday. Bail had not been set. The third was held in juvenile detention.

Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies charged Nakisha Marie Hernandez de Jesus, 18, who gave an at-large address, Juan Alberto Baez, 17, no address given and Janeen Ibrahim, 17, 8367 Moccasin Trail Drive, Riverview.

Each was charged with armed carjacking and armed robbery. Baez was additionally charged on active warrants with a variety of outstanding charges ranging from grand theft to armed burglary and obstruction of justice. Ibrahim was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center, deputies said.

The victim, Kimberly Ponder, 38, 1033 Cardonna St., S. said she was walking to her family’s 1997 Chevrolet pickup just after midnight when she was approached by the three teens.

“They had shirts wrapped around their heads and they were like, “Give us your money. Give us all your money. We want everything,” said Ponder, still upset on Monday afternoon. “They were very aggressive.

“I was so scared, I was like, “Just take the truck. Please, take the truck. Don’t hurt me,” she said. “At one point, I thought the one of them was going to shoot me.”

She said the truck belongs to her brother and is used to drive her father to dialysis treatments on a regular basis. She said that around 5 a.m. on Monday, the truck was returned to her. All night, she said, she had nightmares about being robbed and killed.

“I am still very shaken up,” she said.

While the truck, undamaged, was returned, she didn’t get back her purse, checkbook, credit cards or a wallet that had about $600 in cash. By Monday morning, she had already called to cancel her credit cards, she said.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said deputies were called and immediately set up a perimeter. Deputies in a helicopter spotted the teens walking along some nearby railroad tracks, Carter said.

Tracking dogs were sent to the area and followed the suspects into a wooded area and arrested them near the 3300 bock of South 50th Street shortly after 1 a.m. They offered no resistance, Carter said. The gun was not recovered.

The pickup had been abandoned nearby, she said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 865-1504 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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