By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — One of the teens allegedly caught on camera brutally assaulting a Chinese food deliveryman in Morningside Heights is an honors student at a Harlem High School, his mother said on Thursday.
Charles Codrington, 16, was allegedly caught on tape striking the deliveryman twice in the face, while a friend of his rifled through the man’s pockets, prosecutors said. The teens used Codrington’s cell phone to place the bogus order to a Chinese food restaurant that drew the victim into the April 22 ambush, according to prosecutors.
"This video was shown on network TV … it shows a vicious attack," Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara said during the Thursday afternoon arraignment.
Codrington was arraigned on charges of burglary and robbery and was ordered held on $1,000 bail or $5,000 bond.
Assistant District Attorney Samuel David called the attack "a brutal, premeditated robbery and assault," and had pushed for the first-time offender to be held on $20,000 bail.
One of Codrington's alleged accomplices, a 15 year old whose identity is being witheld by DNAinfo because of his age, was arrested and charged with burglary and robbery on Wednesday night. Police are still searching for two other alleged accomplices, one of whom acted as a lookout during the attack in the sixth-floor hallway at 40 Morningside Ave.
David said Codrington was unlikely to be charged as a juvenile because of the nature of the crime.
Codrington’s mother, Carmen Codrington, pleaded with the judge in the courtroom for leniency, insisting that her son was "a good kid" whose grades at the Academy for Social Action in Harlem "are amazing."
A principal for the school declined to comment through a secretary.
Codrington’s lawyer, Frank Lomuscio, claimed that his client had received the top score of anyone at his high school on a state regents exam and told the judge that the teen’s principal and assistant principal had both offered to come down and speak in his defense. He said Codrington turned himself into police of his own accord.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Codrington turned himself in to authorities, but said that he had little choice but to do so because he was caught on surveillance video and the call to the restaurant came from his cellphone.
On her way out of the courtroom, Carmen Codrington said that her son had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd.
"He was following the wrong child. The child he was following has done this before," the tearful mother, who works as an aide to people with mental disabilities, said.
"This is the first time that my son has been in trouble," she added.
Police released the video of the beating, in which the assailants are seen on tape waiting outside an elevator before pouncing on the deliveryman.
The victim, who has not been identified, suffered a bloody nose, facial bruising and bleeding from his eye, according to the criminal complaint. Prosecutors said Codrington appears on the video, waiting on the left side of the elevator.
Codrington faces a minimum of five years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
