Can You Guess What These People Were Charged With?

Vanessa Young, 26, and Crystal Young have the distinction of allegedly robbing a nun of her rosary at knife point on Sunday. Since they have pleaded not guilty, I would strongly suggest a bench trial.

The nun was actually wearing secular clothes but is a member of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth Catholic religious community. At 2 pm, she said that Young tried to snatch a satchel from her hands. She noticed that the woman had a small knife. The nun said that Young told her that she wasn’t going to hurt anyone. The nun tried to reason with Young and reportedly showed her that she had no money in the satchel and only rosary beads, a key, and a small memento. The nun said that Young responded by saying “I’ll guess I’ll take the rosary beads.” The nun said that Crystal Young was standing ten feet away as a look out.

Mother Olga, the convent’s founder, suggested that the rosary saved her nun: “Only then, thank God, did she take the rosary and put the knife away. I truly believe the rosary saved them both — the nun’s life and the woman from doing a more serious crime.”

When police arrested the women they report that they found a small locking knife, six cell phones, and a Weymouth resident’s checkbook. The rosary beads were not recovered. The phones were later linked to at burglary around the time of the encounter with the nun at a nearby home.

Young is charged with armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, and two counts of receiving stolen property over $250. Young is charged with armed robbery.

Kudos: Professor Roger E. Schechter