Ticket Nightmare
Craigslist robbers severely injure man over Jay Z tickets in horrific getaway
A Houston man narrowly escaped with his life during a horrific robbery that left him severely injured and disfigured — all over a chance to see Jay Z at the Toyota Center.
The victim — who was selling eight tickets to the rapper's Magna Carter World Tour show via Craiglist — arranged to meet potential buyers Cessica Darden and Denitra Green, both 20, on Dec. 15 at a busy Starbucks along Durham and I-10.
Darden, who had her baby with her in the car, asked the man if they could make the exchange in the parking lot.
Joined by his girlfriend, the man leaned toward the passenger's side window only to watch Darden grab the tickets. Suddenly, Green hit the gas and exited from the parking lot with the victim still partially inside the vehicle.
"He begged the women to stop and told them they could take the tickets, but they only went faster."
Court documents describe a terrifying scene as the car sped south on Durham. The 20-something victim — who family members have requested remain unnamed for fear of retaliation — pulled himself from the street by clinging to the rear door handle, near where Darden's baby sat in the back seat.
The man finally fell to the pavement after Darden kicked his arm repeatedly. Green ran over the victim with her car and drove from the scene, leaving him with multiple fractures and extensive road rash across his face and body.
"He begged the women to stop and told them they could take the tickets, but they only went faster," the victim's attorney Andino Reynal tells CultureMap. "There's no way they didn't feel it when the car ran over him . . . It's so callous."
Houston police had little trouble locating the women, who brazenly used the tickets to attend the Jay-Z show just four days after the attack. After admitting that they met with the victim at Starbucks, both suspects were charged with aggravated robbery the following day. Green was taken into custody and released on a $30,000 bond while Darden remains at large.
Meanwhile, the victim was hospitalized with shattered bones and serious nerve damage and underwent additional surgery today, according to Reynal. He is expected to need plastic surgery and may lose the use of one hand.
Watch KHOU Ch. 11 report:
