AMESBURY — A Boston man believed by authorities to be one of two gunmen who broke into a Mill Street apartment and shot a resident in November remains behind bars after his arraignment March 21 in Salem Superior Court.
John Conway, 51, of Dorchester is due back in the Salem court on April 12 for a detention hearing. That court session, also called a dangerousness hearing, is to determine whether he poses too great a risk to be afforded bail while awaiting trail.
A second man arrested in connection with the shooting, Robert Doucette, remains in a New Hampshire jail cell.
An Essex County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said Tuesday that Doucette is fighting extradition to Massachusetts and will remain in the neighboring state until her office receives a governor’s warrant — a signed and sealed order by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu authorizing police or any peace officer to transport Doucette across state lines.
Doucette, 43, was captured in early January after Amesbury police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Police say Doucette shot Robert Coote in the knee shortly after he and Conway broke into the man’s apartment and stole a floor safe.
Doucette’s capture by police in New Hampshire came after a state police detective received an anonymous call linking him to the crime. The trooper then called local police, according to court records. Conway is charged with aggravated breaking and entering/person in fear, aggravated assault and battery with serious boldly injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, mayhem, larceny from a building, armed robbery and home invasion.
Doucette and Conway kicked in the door of Coote’s apartment Nov. 15 after staking it out from their rented car, according to court records.
Police say Doucette shot Coote, a convicted drug dealer, in the right knee before they made off with a floor safe in the apartment. Coote was transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where he was treated and released days later.
They then fled on foot and were seen by a neighbor getting into a Toyota sedan and driving away. That car was recorded by a video camera as it drove around the Mill Street boarding house and parked in a nearby lot just prior to the home invasion.
While in the apartment, Amesbury police found in plain sight a large amount of marijuana and a digital scale with white powder on it, according to Officer Scott Peters’ report.
The property manager told police the two men’s arrival and departure were caught on video camera and he gave investigators a copy of the footage.
At the hospital, Cote told Sgt. David Noyes he did not know the two men who broke into his apartment armed with handguns. As they were leaving the apartment, Doucette shot Cote in the knee after the two had words, Detective Raymond Landry wrote in his report.
Later that day, Landry posted the video on a statewide police network, looking for help in identifying the two gunmen.
Within a few days, a Boston Police Department officer told Landry that one of the men was Conway and she had arrested him in 2015 for soliciting a prostitute and that he was known as a “B&E guy who does drug rips,” Landry wrote in his report.
Another Boston police officer confirmed Conway was one of the men in the video.
Landry also received word from an anonymous caller that the other man in the video was Doucette and that he bragged to someone that “he shot the kid in the leg twice, got drugs, money and a safe,” according to the detective’s report.
Dave Rogers is a reporter with the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.
