Scam Suspect held

SALEM — A man charged with conning nine people out of as much as $2,000 each with a phony Craigslist apartment ad tried to con Salem police yesterday into going to Lynn, where, Jayson Fallis claimed, he wanted to turn himself in.

But after a week of playing cat-and-mouse with Fallis, Salem police were wary, said Sgt. James Page, one of the Salem detectives working the case.

Sure enough, police found Fallis a short time later in Salem, not Lynn, hiding inside a closet in a Harbor Street apartment rented by the mother of one of his three children.

Now Fallis is being held on $100,000 cash bail, charged with eight counts of felony larceny by single scheme. He will also face an additional larceny count, as well as identity fraud and use of a vehicle in the commission of a felony, after a ninth victim came forward yesterday, police said.

Police say Fallis placed the ad on Craigslist, a free online message board, for the two-bedroom apartment at 11 Boston St., listing the rent at $850 a month.

The renters paid Fallis anywhere from $500 deposits to $2,000 for first, last and a half-month’s security deposit, police said.

Fallis, who used various last names, told potential renters that he had inherited several rental properties and didn’t know what to do with them, police said.

The truth was that Fallis was simply a former tenant of the building and still had a key.

A prosecutor yesterday said the total amount stolen from the nine victims — including single mothers with young children, a newly engaged couple and working people who emptied their bank accounts to finance a move — now comes to $12,500.

«A number of these people may actually not have a place to stay at this point,» prosecutor Matthew Hemond told Salem District Court Judge Michael Lauranzano.

Hemond said that after Fallis learned that police were looking for him, he contacted them several times, suggesting that he could turn himself in, though he did not do so and instead eluded investigators.

Yesterday morning, Patrolman Victor Ruiz was on patrol in the city’s Point neighborhood when a woman approached his cruiser and asked if police were still looking for «that Craigslist guy,» Page said.

She pointed toward a building on Harbor Street, then kept walking. Police don’t know her name, Page said.

Police had already identified the apartment as a possible hideout for Fallis.

As officers staked out the apartment house, the detectives got a call and some text messages from Fallis, claiming that he was going to turn himself in, and saying that he was on his way from Lynn.

Then, he contacted the detectives and said he needed to be picked up.

While some officers headed toward Lynn, Page and fellow detective Sgt. Steve Bona were taking no chances, leaving officers outside the Harbor Street address as well.

A tenant in the building let the police inside, where they found Fallis in the closet.

Hemond yesterday suggested that Fallis’ efforts to avoid being arrested, as well as a five-page criminal record that includes a past indictment, and a number of missed court appearances, pointed to the need for high bail.

He also suggested that Fallis may have access to other sources of money, citing an insurance settlement.

Fallis claimed at one point that the Mercedes he had been driving, while registered to his girlfriend, was actually his own vehicle and that he could sell it.

Police have seized that Mercedes, however, and say they are now planning to conduct a search of it.

Tom Burke, a lawyer for Fallis, said his client lives on Social Security Disability Income, the result of a head injury.

Fallis, who has told people that he was shot in the head, was grazed by a bullet during a 2004 home invasion in Holliston, the Dedham Transcript reported at the time.

Fallis was visiting a friend and was sleeping, along with two other men, in a tent in the backyard, the newspaper reported, when five suspects from Medford, Malden and Somerville showed up, armed, and found the three men.

They began beating and pistol-whipping the three, demanding money, the newspaper reported, and at some point, two shots were fired, one of them grazing Fallis. The group then went into the home, where they beat the 52-year-old paraplegic owner until he gave them more than $1,000.

Fallis later received a settlement from the homeowner’s insurance policy. It is believed he used some of that money to purchase the Mercedes.

As he was led into court yesterday, Fallis tried to avoid facing cameras, then used an older man sitting in the courtroom dock on a misdemeanor as a shield, trying to hide behind him for a while.

Courts reporter Julie Manganis may be reached at 978-338-2521 or at jmanganis@salemnews.com.

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