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Keys deputies say hired driver set up customer with disability for $2,000 robbery

A Florida Keys woman hired to drive a man is accused of delivering him to two men last Saturday who police say beat him with the butt of a pistol and stole from him $2,000.

Police say the man paid the woman, 44-year-old Jennifer Marie Taylor, $300 to take him from the Lower Keys to Miami International Airport. Instead, she drove him to Rockland Drive on East Rockland Key in the Lower Keys, where detectives say Thomas Edward Dixon, 49, and 41-year-old Keyonbie Nashamba Humphrey, both from Homestead, were lying in wait.

“The victim was beaten with the butt of a handgun, and $2,000 was stolen from him,” Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Adam Linhardt said in a statement. “His luggage was ransacked, and he was left injured in the gravel.”

The 62-year-old man, whom police did not identify other than to say he is mentally disabled, flagged down a passing driver after the attack. He was covered in blood, Linhardt said. Medics took him to Lower Keys Medical Center, where he received stitches to his head.

Deputies stopped a taxi on U.S. 1 about a mile from where the robbery took place because it “was driving suspiciously,” according to the sheriff’s office. Both Taylor and Dixon were in the car. Linhardt said Dixon had blood on his hands and under his fingernails.

Detectives also found an ounce of cocaine, 5.6 grams of heroin and anti-psychotic medication in the car, the sheriff’s office said. Dixon was carrying more than $1,100 in cash, according to Linhardt.

Henri Kosk, owner of Five 6’s Taxi Company, said Taylor and Dixon “were using our services when the sheriffs pulled them over,” but Taylor “has never driven for us.”

“Whichever vehicle they were in when the robbery occurred, it was not a pink taxi,” Kosk said, referring to the color of his company’s cars.

Detectives arrested Dixon that day on aggravated battery and robbery, cocaine and heroin trafficking, possession of a drug without a prescription, possession of drug paraphernalia and giving police a false name. He’s in county jail on a bond totaling $425,000. He also had outstanding arrest warrants for violating his parole, Linhardt said.

Taylor was arrested on aiding and abetting a felony. She remains in jail on a $50,000 bond, according to online inmate information.

Detectives obtained a warrant for Humphrey on aggravated battery and robbery charges. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Detective Sgt. Linda Mixon at (305) 731-8139 or Crime Stoppers at (866) 471-8477.

This story has been updated. The original story reported that the woman accused of setting up the alleged victim was a taxi cab driver. The owner of the taxi company said the woman was a passenger in one of his cabs when she was pulled over, but the alleged robbery was not committed by one of his drivers, and the woman has never driven for his company.