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Probable cause found to charge 3 suspects in copper wire theft
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has found probable cause to warrant the filing of charges against three of four suspects arrested in the act of burglarizing the former Koreana Hotel in Chalan Kanoa and stealing copper wires.
At a preliminary hearing last week, Camacho found probable cause that the crimes of burglary, attempted theft, conspiracy to commit burglary and theft, and criminal mischief were committed and that the persons who may have committed the offenses are Patrick Pangelinan Mendiola, Jonathan Taitano Blas, and Nelson Atalig Ramon.
At the hearing, Mendiola, Blas, and Ramon appeared with their respective court-appointed counsels: Michael A. White, Bruce Berline, and Chief Public Defender Douglas Hartig. Assistant attorney general Heather Barcinas appeared for the government.
Arraignment will be on Sept. 22 at 9am.
After the hearing, the three defendants were remanded into the custody of the Department of Corrections. They are being held on a $20,000 cash bail each.
The preliminary hearing for defendant Jose Taitano Blas did not push through as he has yet to be served with a penal summons. Jose Blas reportedly cooperated in the investigation.
Members of the Department of Public Safety’s Charlie Shift Patrol Unit responded to the former Koreana Hotel on Aug. 23, 2014, at 3:42am, after receiving a call from a woman about a burglary in progress.
The officers caught at the scene the four suspects as they were exiting a small window in the generator room of the former hotel. Police recovered from the suspects large copper wires that were cut and rolled into bundles about 50 to 100 feet.
It was allegedly Ramon’s idea to steal copper wires from the establishment.
