Crime & Safety

Man Sought in 2011 Home Invasion Now in Custody

Lower Moreland police took Mikael Rafael Coles Jr. into custody over the weekend, South Whitehall police said. Arrests do not indicate a conviction.

 

A 25-year-old Philadelphia man is now in custody on charges he took part in a  and shooting on South Drive in South Whitehall.  

Mikael Rafael Coles Jr., of 5551 Ardleigh St. in the city's East Germantown section, was taken into custody Saturday by Lower Moreland police and later arraigned before District Judge Jacob Hammond, South Whitehall investigator Jerome Cramer said. Coles is in Lehigh County prison in lieu of bail.

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Coles had gone to the house on South Drive to get back some money that the homeowner's oldest son, Jermaine Herod, had borrowed, according to the arrest affidavit. The money was believed to be in a safe.

 and that an arrest warrant had been issued.

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According to the arrest affidavit, Coles and three other men broke into the house on South Drive through a basement window at 4:25 a.m. on April 25, 2011. Coles went upstairs with two of the men and they tried to get Jermaine Herod to tell them where to find the safe. Herod was kicked in the head. An earlier WFMZ report had said the men were masked.

Herded into an upstairs bathroom were “father, mother, three sons and a juvenile cousin,” the affidavit said. Jermaine Herod was the last one inside the bathroom, and Coles fired six shots into the door, according to the criminal complaint. Herod was hit three times, and after the robbers fled, family members rushed him to the hospital. 

Coles is charged with aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy charges of aggravated assault, burglary and robbery.

Police earlier arrested Terrance Jamal Brown of Philadelphia in the case. had led police to name Brown as a suspect. 

Brown told police that Herod had borrowed some money from Coles, whom he knows as "D," and that he came to South Whitehall with Coles to get some of the money back.

Herod told police he had some business dealings with Coles, the affidavit said.

Herod's mother had told The Morning Call that her son works in the music industry as a promoter. 

Meanwhile Tuesday, Brown's preliminary hearing was continued for a second time. He is charged with aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, recklessly endangering and criminal conspiracy.

Police are seeking two other men in the case.


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