Open House Robbery Suspects Plan to Plead Not Guilty

The two women arrested for allegedly robbing a number of open houses on the Upper East and West Sides are being on bail of $30,000 each. Jessica Joyner and Jennifer Jones, charged with petty larceny, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, will be extradited to New Jersey authorities next week because they allegedly stole $75,000 worth of items during a Saddle River, NJ home's open house.

The pair, who both live in Upper East Side apartments, were friends, with, as the Post says, "solid jobs, yoga lessons, a spot at the bar at Elaine's and a taste for fine clothes." But some believe that their addictions to prescription drugs also sent them looting open houses for jewelry, clothes, and other items. A relative of Joyner's told the Daily News that Joyner was a kleptomaniac and now the owner of the yoga studio they went to now wonders if the pair was responsible for locker room thefts.

Joyner was previously convicted of drug possession and Jones was convicted of robbery in 1989. Still, a lawyer for the women said at the arraignment that the women would plead not guilty, "These people are not accustomed to the criminal-justice system, they're terrified. They're not accustomed to the spotlight and being on the other side of the criminal-justice system." We wonder how that works, since prosecutors say the women confessed.

And, yesterday, Douglas Heddings, a vice-president at Prudential Douglas Elliman who first alerted people to the pair's thieving ways, commented on Curbed that "Jessica Joyner, the blonde who relieved herself in the master bathroom and it wasn't urine! Yes, she defecated all over herself and the toilet, wiped herself 'somewhat' clean with the owner's bath towel and then ran from the apartment wreaking of feces."