Quick and effective public assistance helped Mamou police make arrests in a case where police say two adults and two juveniles beat a man on Easter Sunday and took his money.

Mamou detective Marie Potter said the adult female, Latasha Pleasant, was in the parking lot of apartments on East Street with a juvenile male and female. Potter said Pleasant was drinking vodka and smoking marijuana when a man came to her and began talking. Potter said Pleasant asked the man to buy her alcohol.

Pleasant then went into the apartment of Charles Dewayne Smith Jr. and told him the man she met outside had a large amount of money. Potter said they devised a plan to attack the man in a dark spot along the way to a store that sold alcoholic beverages.

As Pleasant and the man walked to the store, Smith and the juvenile male attacked the man from behind on Mulberry Street, knocking him to the ground. Then all four began kicking the man in the head and took more than $100 in cash from the victim’s pocket, Potter said.

The four ran off when three bystanders yelled that they were calling the police. Smith, carrying the cash in his hand, ran right past the bystanders.

When the four met briefly at Smith’s apartment, he said he didn’t have the money. Knowing that the police had been called, all four dispersed. Smith went into a field near the apartment and observed police as they arrived and searched the apartment, then left.

An informant told police Smith’s mother had gone to an ATM. Mamou Police Chief Greg Dupuis said Smith’s mother may have been getting money to aid Smith’s escape.

Police picked up Smith’s mother, who informed them Smith had returned to his apartment.

Smith was arrested at his apartment at about 11 p.m., some three hours after the robbery occurred. Smith and Pleasant were transferred to the Evangeline Parish Jail on April 10, where they were being held on $50,000 bonds. Pleasant was denied bail because she was on probation. Both remained in jail at press time. They were charged with second degree battery, second degree robbery and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of juveniles.

The two juveniles were charged with felonies and were released into the custody of their parents pending a court appearance.

“I’d like to commend the people who came forward,” with information useful in tracking down the people arrested, Chief Dupuis said. He said people in Mamou provide police with “great cooperation.”