A Texas man was held on high bail Jan. 18 after his arraignment on a raft of charges stemming from three motor vehicle thefts and six commercial burglaries last year at sites in Everett and as far south as Brockton.
Frederick D. Williams, 29, of Dallas, Texas, was indicted Dec. 20 on six counts each of breaking and entering at night with intent to commit a felony, breaking into a depository, and malicious destruction of property; four counts of larceny over $250; two counts of attempted larceny over $250; three counts of larceny of a motor vehicle; and one count of possession of burglarious instruments.
After being arrested on a fugitive warrant by Texas authorities, Williams was extradited yesterday to Massachusetts, where he was arraigned today in Suffolk Superior Court. Clerk Magistrate Lisa Medeiros set bail at $500,000 cash. A second Texan, Matthew Gallagher, 32, was identically charged.
Assistant District Attorney Andrew Doherty of the DA’s Special Prosecutions Unit told the court that both men are accused of two motor vehicle thefts and six break-ins at convenience stores and gas stations across the greater Boston area on May 18 and May 19, 2017. Those offenses were investigated by the Boston, Brockton, Cambridge, Everett, Stoughton, and Woburn police departments, as well as Massachusetts State Police and the Massport Drug Task Force.
The charges were consolidated in Suffolk County under Chapter 266, Sect. 60B, which provides that certain crimes “committed in different counties or the territorial jurisdiction of different courts … may be charged and prosecuted in any court having jurisdiction of at least 1 of the crimes.” Prosecutors in Middlesex, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties contributed to the case, as well.
Williams and Gallagher are charged as part of a group that stole a van in Woburn in the early morning hours of May 18 and then broke into two businesses, damaging an ATM and stealing a safe from an Everett gas station and fleeing a Cambridge gas station after triggering an alarm. The group then stole a second van in Mattapan and broke into a Dorchester gas station, attempting to pry open two safes but fleeing when an alarm sounded.
In the early morning hours of May 19, they allegedly took part in the theft of a third van in Stoughton and break-ins at three convenience stores in Brockton, where they stole two store safes and two ATMs. At all of the locations, the burglars used large wrecking bars and a sledgehammer to pry or open locked depositories.
Later on May 19, prosecutors say, Williams and Gallagher were also among a group of men who were questioned at a security checkpoint at Logan Airport when screeners observed more than $50,000 in cash in their carry-on bags. In the course of the investigation that followed, police and prosecutors obtained security video at each of the various locations, phone and cell tower records, and additional evidence leading to last month’s indictments, Doherty said.
Williams was represented today by attorney Andrew Stockwell-Albert. He returns to court on May 14.