Masked sneaker fan charged as gun-toting East Boston carjacker after his voice and an ankle bracelet from an open criminal case gave him away, DA says

A man who had bought several pairs of sneakers from an East Boston man was arraigned today on charges he set up a ruse to carjack the seller - and take the sneakers he'd said he would buy - in a Saratoga Street parking lot last month, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Ricardon Encarnacion, 29, was ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail after he was formally charged with carjacking with a firearm for an incident in the parking lot of the CVS at 1150 Saratoga St. around 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 22, the DA's office says.

According to prosecutors, the victim had agreed to meet a man he knew as "Lu" to sell him the latest in a series of sneakers. But when the victim pulled up, another guy asked to see the footwear:

While the victim was opening his trunk, a white vehicle pulled up next to them and another unidentified male wearing a ski mask and vest approached the victim and pointed what the victim thought was a gun against the victim’s back.

As the victim stepped away, he observed what appeared to be a black and silver firearm. The unidentified man with the firearm pulled the car keys from the victim and jumped into the victim’s vehicle and drove toward Orient Heights train station at a high rate of speed. The other individual took off in the white vehicle.

The victim recognized the guy with the gun who took his car as Lu, to whom he had sold sneakers in the past, based on his voice and general appearance, the DA's office says.

The victim provided investigators with "Lu’s" phone number, which came back to a Ricardo Encarnacion, who had a GPS monitoring device for an unrelated pending case. GPS data showed Encarnacion in the parking lot area of 1150 Saratoga Street then on Barnes Avenue, where the vehicle was recovered.

The DA's office did not specify if his ankle bracelet was for an open larceny charge out of Waltham or one out of Framingham.

Innocent, etc.