Howard County police said they were led to Raymond Dixon through an unusual path: His MySpace site.
Dixon, 17, of Clarksville, is charged with robbing a 16-year-old boy at The Mall in Columbia in November.
He is set to appear in Howard County Circuit Court on Thursday for a criminal motions hearing, when admissible evidence and trial scheduling is usually determined.
Dixon?s mother, Andrea Robinson, said Monday that she believes her son is innocent, and he was set up by the 16-year-old who accused him. She also said she thinks MySpace.com can lead to problems for everyone who uses it.
“It?s unfortunate,” she said of teenagers using MySpace.com. “It?s a problem. I don?t agree with people using it at all.”
The 16-year-old told police that three males approached him at the mall at about 8:55 p.m. on Nov. 19 and asked to buy his Bathing Ape sweatshirt for $350, according to charging documents. Bathing Ape is a Japanese skatewear clothing brand.
The 16-year-old and the three males went to a nearby hallway to conduct the transaction when one male brandished what appeared to be a black semiautomatic weapon and robbed the teen of the sweatshirt, the 16-year-old told police.
The boy went home and searched for his alleged attacker on the Internet and found the other boy?s picture on the alleged attacker?s MySpace.com Web site, according to charging documents and Wayne Kirwan, the spokesman for Howard County State?s Attorney Office. The documents did not say how the 16-year-old knew his alleged attacker?s name.
The boy printed the pictures off the Web site and found a link to another Web site, which contained photos of an alleged accomplice in the robbery. He then gave the photos to police and identified the boy in the photos as the one who robbed him, police said.
Police investigators took the pictures to administrators at Atholton and Hammond high schools, who identified Dixon as the subject of some of the photos, according to charging documents. Police then charged Dixon with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and theft.
