Second juvenile arrested in armed robbery of Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A second juvenile suspect has been arrested in connection with last month’s armed carjacking of Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams .

New Orleans police last Friday (Nov. 17) booked 16-year-old Amajha “Cheewee” Curtis with three counts of armed robbery and three enhancement counts of armed robbery with a handgun, in connection with the carjackings of Williams, his 78-year-old mother and of a another woman a short distance from the DA’s Lower Garden District home on Oct. 16.

The NOPD previously arrested 18-year-old Ahmad Seals and 16-year-old Dijohn Curtis as accused perpetrators of the high-profile crime against the city’s top prosecutor. Investigators wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit that a person with knowledge of the crimes told detectives that Cheewee Curtis and Dijohn Curtis are cousins and participated together with Seals in the two armed carjackings.

(Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)

Records obtained by Fox 8 show Cheewee Curtis was arrested Nov. 14 on outstanding warrants for illegal possession of a handgun by a juvenile and for possession of a stolen handgun. A search warrant executed at the teen’s home three days later uncovered ammunition and a gun’s magazine in the teen’s bedroom, police wrote.

Cheewee Curtis was then rebooked with the Oct. 16 armed robberies of Williams and his mother in the 1000 block of Race Street at 10:01 p.m. and of another woman in the 1800 block of Carondelet Street that occurred about 24 minutes later.

(WVUE-Fox 8)

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, part of what led investigators to Cheewee Curtis’ door was that when police recovered the Honda Civic stolen from the Carondelet Street victim about two hours later in New Orleans East, the car was still running and its console displayed a message that a Bluetooth connection had been lost.

An NOPD sergeant at the scene searched the car’s list of previously connected Bluetooth devices, and found a phone with the name “Cheewee” listed. The Honda’s owner told police she did not recognize the name “Cheewee,” nor recalled ever permitting a device with that name to be connected to her vehicle.

Because Williams is the victim in one of the carjackings, the cases are being prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s office. A law enforcement source told Fox 8 that Cheewee Curtis appeared Tuesday in Orleans Parish Juvenile Court for a continued custody hearing, which was continued. The hearing was triggered by a court filing in which the AG’s office served notice of its intent to transfer the case to Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

That follows the AG’s previous filing of intent to also try Dijohn Curtis for the alleged crimes in adult court. The cousins, who both remain in Orleans Parish juvenile custody, are now both scheduled for a juvenile court hearing on Dec. 6.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the district attorney’s Lincoln Navigator was recovered about an hour and 13 minutes after it was stolen, ditched in the 2300 block of Coliseum Street.

The Carondelet Street woman’s stolen Honda Civic was found about an hour and 45 minutes after it was taken, abandoned at Lake Forest Avenue and Mayo Boulevard, an intersection about a quarter-mile from Cheewee Curtis’ mother’s house in the 4800 block of Rosemont Place.