Cranston teen pleads guilty to role in Providence home invasion

PROVIDENCE — A 19-year-old Cranston man pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery Wednesday for a 2018 home invasion during which a family was held at gunpoint, bound and threatened with guns and a kitchen knife in Providence, Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Friday.

Elijah Blyden is scheduled to be sentenced July 31 in Providence Superior Court.

If the case had gone to trial, the state said it was prepared to prove that on the June 25, 2018, Blyden and co-defendants Juan Velasquez and Josse Mosquea-Rodriguez forced their way into an apartment on Hanover Street in Providence, Neronha said in a press release.

Inside the apartment, Blyden and the co-defendants held a family at gunpoint, bound them with cords, threatened them with two guns and a kitchen knife, and pistol-whipped one victim, Neronha said.

The victims were robbed of cash and jewelry and the apartment was ransacked, the attorney general said. As they left, the defendants threatened to kill the victims if they called the police.

During the investigation, the Providence police discovered numerous social media images depicting Blyden, Velasquez and Mosquea-Rodriguez handling firearms and large amounts of cash. Blyden posted many of the images himself.

On June 12, Velasquez pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of burglary and was sentenced to a 35-year full sentence with 17 years to serve and the balance suspended with probation.

On Dec. 18, Mosquea-Rodriguez, 17, pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree robbery in the Family Court. The court imposed a 15-year full sentence, with seven years to serve and the balance suspended, according to the attorney general.

Mosquea-Rodriguez is serving at the Rhode Island Training School until his 19th birthday. The court certified him and will hold a modification hearing before his 19th birthday to determine whether he will serve the remaining time at the ACI. Although the case was handled in Family Court, a certified sentence is an adult sentence. Mosquea-Rodriguez has an adult conviction.