Lynn man in laughing mood as judge assigns $110,000 bail

LYNN – A district court judge ordered one of three suspects arrested in connection with a home invasion that led to a five-hour standoff held on a total of $110,000 cash bail.Buthchhay Chourb, 22, of Lynn, was arraigned Friday on charges of home invasion and possession with intent to distribute from a previous incident.Bailiffs led him into court in handcuffs and restraints, but he smiled and laughed a few times while other arraignments were being held. He slouched while sitting in the box, at one point nearly reclining back over the bench.Assistant District Attorney Lisa Core described Thursday’s home invasion as “brazenly violent.”She requested $1 million cash bail be set for Chourb, after telling the judge that he held a gun to the head of the victim of the home invasion.She noted that Chourb had recently been released from jail and said his drug charges demonstrated “that he has no intention of complying with” the law. She added that additional charges may be coming, as the case progresses.But Defense Attorney Todd Siegel noted that police reports stated only that Chourb jumped out of the window of the house.He said there were no documents alleging the suspect held a gun to the victim’s head.Core said that information came from an interview police had conducted with the victim early in the evening.After the hearing, Chourb’s sister-in-law said that he was innocent.”I think he was just there at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said his sister-in-law, Rebecca Khuy, who sat near the front of the courtroom during the hearing.Siegel said the whole affair was “an unfortunate situation.” “There are two people in the hospital with bullet wounds,” he said.One of the other suspects, Randell McClain, 29, had his arraignment scheduled for today at Massachusetts General Hospital, but it was postponed because McClain told his attorney that he didn’t understand what was going on. In the meantime, McClain is being held without bail.Although he had nothing to say during his arraignment, McClain made several statements to police, according to court documents.McClain told Lynn Police Lt. Peter Holey as the officer walked him to a waiting ambulance, “Not for nothing, the cop that got me was a good shot.”Special Investigations Unit Officer Ross Panacopoulos wrote in a report that he heard McClain talking to his mother in the emergency room at Mass. General Hospital.When she asked him what happened, he told her, “I went there to stop them,” and then added that one of the other suspects told him he wasn’t going outside after he was shot, according to the report.He also told his mother that he was used as a “shield,” and then before being transferred to Mass General from North Shore Medical Center in Salem, he allegedly said, “All I wanted was a bag of weed,” according to the report.At the arraignment in Lynn District Court, another man, Chhandroeun Chen, 22, who police say didn’t participate in the home invasion, was arraigned on charges of disorderly conduct and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.Chen allegedly tried to hit a police officer with a beer bottle, while trying to push his way into the crime scene, saying that police had “shot his cousin.”Core described Chen as a “known gang member,” who was on three years probation for a firearm sentence. She said Lynn Police had information that he was still in possession of a semi-automatic weapon and that he had a “violent history.””For someone who’s on probation, this is most extraordinary,”she said.He was ordered held on $500 cash.