West Haven robbery/rape case similar to Branford and Milford crimes, cops say - Post-Chronicle

[Jesse Leavenworth]

WEST HAVEN — A Stamford man who faces charges of knifepoint robberies and sexual assaults in Branford and Milford is also accused of committing a similar crime in August at a West Haven massage parlor, according to an arrest warrant released Tuesday.


Terrell Meynard, 42, faces charges in the West Haven case that include first-degree sexual assault, first-degree robbery, unlawful restraint and fourth-degree larceny. Meynard was being held on $500,000 bond and is to appear in state Superior Court in Milford on Feb. 11.


On Aug. 18, West Haven police began investigating an armed robbery of a woman who spoke only Korean. Through a translator, the woman said she was bound, robbed and sexually assaulted inside a massage parlor that she had recently purchased, the warrant said.


She told police she was in the business alone when the doorbell rang. She told the man at the door that the place was closed, but he pushed the door open and moved her inside, saying "shhhh" and asking for money. He pushed her into a room, tied her hands together with a phone charging cord and began poking her with a pair of scissors, the woman told police.


Ransacking the room, the robber found $600 that the woman had in a purse and hidden under a mattress, the warrant said. He also stole her two cellphones, police said. After searching other rooms, the man sexually assaulted her while she begged him not to kill her, the woman told police, according to the warrant.


Through witness statements, surveillance cameras, license plate readers and data from the two stolen cellphones and Meynard's own phone, police focused on him as a suspect, the warrant says. West Haven police also learned that New Haven police were investigating the robbery of a massage parlor on Sept. 28 that fit the same pattern as the West Haven, Branford and Milord robbery and assaults, the warrant said.