Mary Pezzoni’s friendly poker party, a few miles west of
Brighton out in the country with a $100 buy in, got terrifying all of a sudden
last June 4, 2015 late Thursday night. There are about 18 people in the walk
out basement. Most gamblers are situated around a poker table with the $100 buy
in. There’s an unlocked black cabinet that has the money stash. Suddenly three black men, two with white
sleeves covering their faces, show up, two down the stairs accessed through the
garage and one through the sliding door, armed with a baseball bat, a
retractable baton and a revolver. “Where’s the money? Where’s the money”, they
shout. The poker table has chips on it, but they’ve been told the money is in
the black cabinet next to the poker table. Tereance Ayres opens the cabinet and
grabs what money there is. They were told that there could be $20 grand at
stake. There’s far less than that. A gun is held to someone’s head and they
begin to count down from 5…4…3…2. Mary has come down from upstairs where she
was washing dishes and begins to shout for them to leave, “There’s no more
money; there’s children upstairs”. The gun is pointed at Mary. “There’s no
money. Please leave!” she says. Mary has a bit of an odd home situation; her
ex-husband continues to live with her, plus her boyfriend and children live
there. One gamer is threatened with kidnap, “He’s cute. We should take him!” The
boyfriend gets bludgeoned with the baton and begins to bleed profusely down the
forehead. People are truly in fear of their lives. Mary continues to shout, “There’s no more money! There’s no more
money!” The robbers determine there’s no more money to be had and shake the
guests down for cell phones, wallets. They run out of house.
With only one road to speak of back to town, that is
Brighton, the robber’s car and Kennie’s are soon located by police and followed
back to a condo in Brighton. Kennie has an app that monitor’s police chatter. He
detects a call has been made to police. The robber’s began to throw things out
the window of the car, the torn sleeves off their tee shirts used as masks,
credit cards, wallets and such.
Both cars park at a condo in Brighton. It’s unclear how
close the police were following because by the time they put a search light
onto the car and only a driver is present. There was some testimony that they
saw someone walk up to the front door. Police are waiting for backup since they
know that the robbers are armed. The car next to this one begins to back out
and pull by the police car. Police stops him and asks for id. We find out its Kennie Whitby who purports to
live there and claims to be picking up janitorial supplies. Now it’s something
past 1:30am in the Morning June 6 at this time. Police officer is satisfied and
allows him to drive off.
The driver of the other car, Germante Perkins, is arrested.
The other 3 robbers run off underneath a tarp next to a shed in a house nearby.
The police dog failed to locate them and oddly the police seem to be content to
allow armed robbers, who just committed home invasion, to roam free. Kennie
Whitby gets a call the next morning to have him pick them up, the 3 robbers on
the lamb. He takes them over to a commercial property his wife owns and takes
them to an empty unit. He goes to clean Becker’s Brewery and then comes back to
drive the 3 back to West Detroit. Those three arrive on Tacoma St in Detroit.
About 15 minutes later the Police arrive to arrest them. One of the robbers
left his driver’s license in the car.
Upon interrogation the four arrested Detroit residents point
to Kennie as the master mind of the crime. A detective goes to Kennie’s work
that night to ask questions. Kennie asks if he could step outside to talk. Then
Kennie makes a getaway on foot. The detective hears a splash. Kennie has jumped
into the nearby mill pond and is lost to the detective. Helicopter and a police
dog later a wet Kennie on the other side of the pond is in custody. Kennie
sustains a dog bite as well, that didn’t require medical attention.
There’s lots of evidence that Kennie Whitby was heavily
involved. Kennie had met Mary Perzzoni, although she didn’t remember him. He
texted her to ask if he could join the poker party. Kennie did play something
like three times at Mary’s before the robbery. And this is where he found out
that stakes could get high at Mary’s Poker Party. Possibly twenty grand.
We find out at trial from Kennie’s ex-mother-in-law that
Kennie keeps no supplies at the Pinewood Court condo, where Kennie was seen
pulling out of the drive way. And Kennie doesn’t live there either currently
but was his residence when he was married to her daughter. So this is more than
a coincidence that he was parked next to the armed robbers at the condo at
1:30a.m.
It’s also presented at trial that Kennie had communication
through text with Tersean Pressly, his nephew one of the armed robbers.
Inside the robbers’ car was all manner of evidence including
keys, watches, credit cards, car licenses, a wallet AND Kennie Whitby’s
business card in Tyler Ayres wallet.
At trial according to Terence Ayers, who testified on behalf
of the prosecution, Kennie had met them just before the robbery. He gave them 2
plastic bags and plastic gloves. Kennie explained the setup of the house and
directed them to enter through the garage. And how the money was stored in an
unlocked black cabinet next to the poker table. Then Kennie in his own car led
them out to the rural Brighton residence.
Kennie directed the robbers into the garage and downstairs.
He knew he’d be identified, if he followed the robbers down stairs. Kennie
Whitby waited in his car. Then he led them back to the condo in Brighton as
they were being followed by the police.
It was discovered at trial that Kennie had a police scanner
app as well and let the robbers in the other car know that the police had been
called shortly after leaving the poker house.
Phone records were introduced that showed Kennie’s phone was
pinging a mile 1.65 miles away from the Poker Party at the time of the home
invasion and robbery.
The four accomplices once alerted police were on the way
minutes after they had left, began to throw out things they had robbed like
wallets, phones, the masks they used to cover their faces. The masks were torn
t-shirt sleeves. One torn t-shirt sleeve was retrieved and DNA matching one of
the accomplices.
Kennie led them over to his ex-mother-in-law’s condo were as
we know 3 of the accomplices shortly fled. They stayed the night behind a shed
under a tarp. The police’s diligence in locating them wasn’t sufficient to
locate the home invading robbers. They called Kennie at 6:00am and he came over
to pick them up and take them down to Western Detroit to the bus station.
Prosecution didn’t have an eye witness that Kennie was
present at the Poker Party residence. So what evidence did they have? We have the
testimony of Terence Ayers, as to Kennie’s involvement. We have Kennie’s presence at his
ex-mother-in-laws house, parked next to the robbers’ car night of the robbery.
The car that had Tyler Ayres wallet with Kennie Whitby’s business card. Kennie
knew Mary Pezzoni and her poker parties. We have Kennie’s several texts to his
nephew Tersean Pressly before and after
the crime, letting him know there was no guns nor cameras at the Poker Party. Kennie’s
phone also a suspicious police scanner app, that seems to have prompted a
warning text to the other accomplices as they were fleeing the scene.
The jury came back with a guilty verdict after a few hours
deliberation. Unfortunately, at the sentencing we find out that Kennie is 4th
time offender and still under a parole for 2nd degree murder in the
early 90’s. He shot somebody in his drive way. He had been convicted prior to
this in a bad check, credit card fraud some 5 years before this trial. Sentencing
guidelines are harsh and Kennie will likely spend the majority of his life in
prison. The judge sentenced him to 50 years. Prior to sentencing Kennie had
unsuccessfully tried to escape by trying to kick out the air duct in his jail
cell but I read that in the papers. You wouldn’t have known it at trial. Kennie
presented a respectful image.
*****
I had to confirm this myself but good looking Kennie charmed
an attractive local business woman to marry him a few months prior to the
robbery. What possessed him to concoct this hair brained plot afterwards, you
got to wonder? Didn’t he realize he was a repeated offending convicted
criminal?
Of course that’s just one of the questions one asks oneself.
What was Mary Pezzoni thinking hosting large stakes poker parties in her home?
She asserted these guests were her family and that was her only motivation for
having them. Number two, isn’t gambling illegal? The invasion/robbery kind of
confirms the risk involved with such an enterprise. Especially with no
security: no guns or no security video. As well as putting her children upstairs
along with her ex-husband at risk. Poker party with big stakes…what could go
wrong there?
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