BOSTON, November 15, 2017— A Roxbury man has been indicted in a months-long string of armed robberies that repeatedly targeted several Roxbury businesses, their employees, and their customers, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

The Suffolk County Grand Jury yesterday returned indictments charging IMAURI IVERY (D.O.B. 6/15/79) with:

• 20 counts of armed and masked robbery,
• four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon,
• two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon,
• two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm,
• two counts of carrying a loaded firearm,
• and one count of armed assault with intent to rob.

Ivery is additionally charged with being a Level III armed career criminal and unlawful possession of a firearm as a subsequent offense as a result of three separate drug distribution convictions and a 2003 federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition.  According to prosecutors, he was released from his 180-month federal prison sentence in January 2016.  He has remained in custody since his April arraignment on a Suffolk Superior Court case charging firearm offenses; that case charges possession of a semi-automatic pistol recovered in his home during the execution of a search warrant in connection with the robbery investigation.

Through an exhaustive investigation begun on the street by Boston Police and continued by Suffolk prosecutors behind the closed doors of the grand jury, Ivery was identified as the person responsible for nine armed robberies of four Blue Hill Avenue business and an attempted armed robbery at a Kneeland Street restaurant between August 2016 and January 2017. Police and prosecutors gathered and subpoenaed surveillance camera footage, witness statements, Registry of Motor Vehicle records, cell site location information, ballistic and physical evidence and other evidence linking the robberies to one another and identifying Ivery as the perpetrator in each.

“Complex cases like this one show the power of the grand jury as an investigative tool,” Conley said. “From witness statements to cell tower records, we were able to check each piece of evidence against the others carefully and methodically.”

According to prosecutors, the first of the Blue Hill Avenue robberies targeted a convenience store on August 31, 2016, where an assailant carrying two firearms stole from the register and took an employee’s cell phone and a customer’s wallet. 

On Sept. 24, 2016, the same man carried two firearms as he robbed a Blue Hill Avenue market and assaulted and robbed a customer; he again displayed two firearms when he struck the market in a second armed robbery Nov. 18. 

In the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 2016, the assailant pointed two guns at a customer of Kneeland Street diner but fled without taking any of the victim’s belongings.  The suspect wore a distinctive jacket and two-toned sneakers during the robbery that were later recovered from Ivery’s closet during the execution of a search warrant.  Images captured by surveillance cameras in the area depict a silver vehicle that RMV records link to a relative of Ivery, prosecutors said.

A Blue Hill Avenue restaurant, its employees, and customers were robbed Oct. 11, 2016, by a man carrying two guns and who discharged a firearm into the air as an employee followed him from the location.  The suspect was wearing the same distinctive clothing worn during the Oct. 4 robbery.  He wore the same clothing when he robbed the same restaurant Oct. 27, 2016, and again on Jan. 1.

Surveillance cameras show the man once again wearing the same jacket and shoes as he robbed another market on Blue Hill Avenue on Dec. 22 and again Jan. 28.  He fired a gun as the victims pursued him while he fled the second robbery.

In several of the incidents, the assailant was observed fleeing the robberies in the same direction as Ivery’s Elm Hill Park residence.  Shell casings recovered along the assailant’s path of flight following the Oct. 11 and Jan. 28 robberies were found to be .380 caliber ammunition; a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was recovered during the execution of a search warrant at Ivery’s home in February, prosecutors said.

In addition to clothing matching that worn during several of the robberies that was recovered during the search of Ivery’s home, police also recovered a pair of black gloves with white lettering that matched those worn during several robberies, including the final robbery in which he fired his weapon as he fled.  Forensic testing conducted by Boston Police criminalists yielded a positive result for gunshot residue.

Assistant District Attorney Amanda Cascione of the DA’s Major Felony Bureau led the grand jury investigation resulting in yesterday’s indictments.   Ivery is due back in court Nov. 20 on his April gun case, and he could be arraigned on the robbery-related charges that same day.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.