EGN NEWS DESK
Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, 19, of Venezuela entered his plea in downtown Los Angeles to at least one depend of interference with commerce by theft — referred to as a federal Hobbs Act crime, in line with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A tentative trial date of Oct. 22 was scheduled.
A thriller lingers over how Padron and his co-defendant got here into possession of a handgun registered to Christopher Dorner, the infamous former LAPD officer who killed 4 individuals earlier than dying on the finish of a standoff with police 11 years in the past.
The suspected robbers are believed to be a part of a “crime tourism” group composed of overseas nationals who journey to the United States to interact in high-value theft.
The theft on the afternoon of Aug. 7 focused a watch worn by a British vacationer sitting together with his spouse and two daughters on the patio of the resort cafe. Prosecutors mentioned one of many suspects approached and pointed a black semi-automatic handgun on the sufferer and pulled again the slide of the handgun, chambering a spherical.
While the primary suspect held the sufferer at gunpoint, the second suspect approached and snatched the silver Patek Philippe watch, estimated to be value $1 million, from the sufferer’s wrist, prosecutors mentioned.
The watch was later recovered in Miami following an investigation right into a separate watch theft that came about in Florida months earlier.
Both suspects then left the scene and finally entered a blue Toyota Corolla, with co-defendant Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar, 22, of Colombia allegedly serving because the getaway driver, in line with papers filed in Los Angeles federal courtroom.
Sepulveda pleaded not responsible on Sept. 3 to at least one depend of interference with commerce by theft and one depend of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a criminal offense of violence.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at an Airbnb in Exposition Park the place the South Americans had been reported to have stayed. During the search, officers discovered a Glock handgun registered to Dorner. Later that day, authorities carried out a site visitors cease in Riverside on a Chevrolet Equinox and recognized Padron and Sepulveda contained in the automobile, in line with courtroom papers.
The Equinox was allegedly linked to a different armed theft within the 400 block of Doheny Road in Beverly Hills on Aug. 5, throughout which a $30,000 Rolex was stolen, prosecutors mentioned.
It remained unclear how the suspects got here into possession of a weapon registered to Dorner, who went on a murderous rampage in 2013 that gripped the Southland. His killing spree claimed the lives of two cops, together with the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiancé.
The killings prompted a large manhunt that in the end led to Big Bear, the place authorities engaged in an prolonged gun battle with Dorner, who was holed up in a cabin that finally caught fireplace and burned to the bottom. Dorner was discovered dead within the burned-out cabin.It was unclear if the gun registered to Dorner was the one used within the Beverly Hills theft, however authorities mentioned no different weapons have been recovered.
If convicted on all counts, Sepulveda faces a sentence of as much as life in federal jail, whereas Padron faces as much as 20 years, prosecutors famous.
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