Canton man charged with holding up Mattapan phone store twice

Jerron Perry, 27, was arraigned Thursday on charges he held up the Metro PCS store at 1340 Blue Hill Ave. twice - and a Canton 7-Eleven - last fall, the US Attorney's office reports.

Perry was charged in federal court or the holdups because he has a 2013 conviction in Suffolk County for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon - which means he is subject to federal jurisdiction if found in possession of firearms or ammunition. If convicted on the new charge of interference with commerce by robbery, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent on the case, Perry, wearing a red face mask under a black hoodie and shoes with a "blunted-style toe" walked into the Metro PCS store, near the corner with Wilmore Street, around 6:40 p.m. on Sept. 22. and pointed "a large-framed, black, semi-automatic pistol at the cashier" and ordered the cashier to lift the money tray out of the register. He took $607 and fled.

The affidavit continues that Perry returned to the store on Oct. 25, this time in a black face mask, again in a hoodie and again with the blunted-toe shoes, with a white spot or blemish on the right shoulder, and pointed what appeared to be the same gun and the cashier and repeated his directions to lift the money tray out of the register. He fled with $359.

According to the affidavit, Perry similarly robbed the 7-Eleven on Washington Street in Canton, once more wearing a white-spotted black hoodie and the blunted-toe shoes, shortly after midnight on Oct. 31.

Investigators used search warrants to obtain wireless data to put Perry at the two scenes. First they got "tower dumps" of calls made via cell towers near the locations and identified one number that seemed to have made calls through them - which matched a number for Perry in a State Police database, since he had provided it after a car crash in Boston in January, 2018. Canton Police began to think they had their man, at least for the Canton robbery, based on surveillance video and witness statements. Then detectives looked at the meta data for Perry's specific phone - and found records indicating that the phone had been in the vicinity of the three robberies around the times they happened.

Armed with another search warrant, investigators searched Perry's Canton home this past Thursday. According to the affidavit, they found clothing similar to that described by the victims and witnesses - including the black hoodie with the white spot on the shoulder - as well as two spent .22-caliber shell casings.

Innocent, etc.