Sheffield teens face charges for pulling gun on UMass student who tried to stop girl, 15, from leaving with them

BELCHERTOWN — Two Sheffield teens were arraigned Monday on a slew of charges related to pulling a gun on a University of Massachusetts Amherst student on campus Saturday who tried to talk a 15-year-old female friend out of driving off with them.

Jeremy A. Borges, 19, and Isaiah J. Kasehas, 18, are being held at the Hampshire County Jail after Monday’s appearance at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown. Borges, Kasehas and the juvenile are not UMass students.

Both were charged with carrying a firearm on school grounds, carrying a firearm without a license, possessing a large capacity firearm, possessing a large capacity feeding device illegal after Sept. 13, 1994, possessing ammunition without an FID card and disorderly conduct.

Borges was also charged with breach of the peace while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon and child endangerment.

Their next court appearance will be Friday.

The 15-year-old juvenile, identified in court documents as “J1,” attended a UMass party and drank alcohol Saturday, then decided to leave with Borges and Kasehas, according to witness statements by a 19-year-old woman from Great Barrington who is not a UMass student and a male UMass student who did not provide his age or town of residence. Belchertown Court officials said they redacted the witnesses names for their safety.

“We were leaving a party off campus at the Puffton apartments looking for my car,” the Great Barrington woman wrote in her statement. “J1 told me that she wanted to meet up with two guys from home (who weren’t at the party with us). J1 was talking with one of them (I believe Jeremy Borges via text messages.) J1 has previously told me that they have been sexually intimate in the past. J1 wanted to go back to Western Mass. or to a hotel with Borges and a friend of his.”

The woman tried to dissuade her friend from leaving with the two men.

“I was concerned for her well-being, since she is a juvenile, had been drinking tonight, and wanted to potentially go home with two older males,” she wrote.

The juvenile left to find Borges and Kasehas. The two witnesses drove to find her, meeting up with the car near Sylvan dorm complex on Eastman Lane with Kasehas driving, Borges in the passenger seat and the juvenile in the back. The UMass student said he then got into an argument with the two men.

“He (Borges) eventually pulled a pistol from the bottom of his seat and put his hand on the gun and slid the gun back,” the UMass student wrote. “I also heard the noise of what I perceive as a gun being ‘cocked’ back...He then said ‘Oh really.’”

The student said in the statement that he was afraid of getting shot and decided to back off and call police after the car left. UMass Police Sgt. Allen Silva received word from dispatch at 3:13 a.m. that Amherst Police had taken a call about the incident.

Hadley police located Borges, Kasehas and the juvenile in a blue Subaru hatchback on Route 9 at 3:22 a.m. and stopped the car in front of Hopkins Academy, according to the report. Hadley police held the two teens up at gunpoint and removed them from the car, the report said.

The juvenile informed police that a gun was in the car under the passenger seat, and police retrieved a Beretta PX4 Storm 9mm, loaded with a 17-round magazine. That large-capacity magazine is illegal in Massachusetts since it was produced after Sept. 13, 1994, according to the report.

Police also found a bottle of Jack Daniels, two 50-round boxes of ammunition, four magazines full of ammunition and a large plastic bag full of marijuana, according to the report.

Hadley police transported the juvenile back to the station for her grandmother and legal guardian to pick her up. Silva also filed a mandatory Department of Children and Families Services report stating the juvenile had been on a college campus where alcohol was present.

“The juvenile also willingly got into a vehicle with two adult males that had marijuana, alcohol ammunition and a firearm without being licensed,” Silva wrote in his report. “These factors plus the fact that one of the males pulled a gun and threatened another person show that the juvenile was placed in risk of substantial bodily harm or injury.”

Eric Goldscheider contributed to this report. Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at deisen@gazettenet.com.