JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 19-year-old accused of holding a Facebook shoe seller at gunpoint and taking off with a brand-new pair of Air Jordans last month was booked into the Duval County Jail on Tuesday and ordered held on a $900,000 bond.
Javaris Platts was arrested last week on charges of armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Platts' mother, Bridgette Washington, said her son had just been released from jail after serving a year sentence for possessing a firearm as a 17-year-old, but now he's back in the system for something he didn't do.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the victim had posted an ad on a Facebook page where people buy and sell shoes, and agreed to sell a brand-new pair of Air Jordans sneakers to Platts at Billy Cobb Senior Park.
When they met at the park on Dec. 10, Platts robbed the seller at gunpoint for the shoes, the police report said.
But the same day as the armed robbery, Washington said her son bought the shoes from DTLR. On Monday, she invited News4Jax inside her home to see the receipt.
"He went up at 10 a.m. that morning to buy the same shoes for $220. I gave him the money and he's on camera buying the shoes," Washington said.
When Platts met the alleged victim at the park, the shoes didn't look real so he was no longer interested in the sale, Washington said.
But she said her son told her there were other men in the park when he left.
"He told me he walked away from the boys and as he was walking away from the boys, two guys stayed at the park talking to some more guys," Washington said. "Thirty minutes later, he texted my son and said, 'You set me up. You knew they were going to rob me.'"
Washington insisted that her son did not know what was going to happen, and she is praying that his name is cleared soon.
"I'm praying that it will see it through because I know my son had no reason to rob anyone. I've been on my job for 18 years and would buy him anything he wants. He don't want for anything," she said. "He's just down there in that area, around the wrong crowd, and I've asked him to stay from down there and he won't. So now, he has to learn that that's not a good area and I hope he learned his lesson."
Platts, his mother and his 14-year-old sister are now awaiting his trial.
News4Jax also went to the home of the victim on Monday, but no one was there.
Just last week, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office warned that robberies related to internet site purchases had increased. Police advised online buyers to meet sellers at a public place.