Suspect in tortoise attack released, arrested again
‘How can you let him go?’ asks horrified owner of preschool
SAN JOSE >> The 40-yearold man arrested over the weekend on suspicion of bludgeoning and stabbing a decades-old 65-pound tortoise in a San Jose preschool garden was released from custody, then returned Feb. 1 with a brick, apparently looking for the injured tortoise.
The suspect, George Robles, ran off when the preschool director arrived at 6:40 a.m. Feb. 1, a half hour before dozens of children ages 18 months to 5 years old, who adore the preschool pet and named him Michelangelo, began arriving.
“I was terrified. I saw the guy, the same guy, run out from the side gate,” Yvonne Co, director of Play ‘N’ Learn Preschool in East San Jose said Feb. 1. “He should not have been released after something like this. That’s insane. What could he do next to anyone else?”
Robles was arrested again Feb. 1 by the police department’s mobile mental health crisis team shortly after 4 p.m. in the samearea.
The tortoise, an African sulcata that the preschool acquired from a rescue program four years ago and kept in a large enclosed garden, underwent surgery Jan. 30 and is recovering at the animal hospital.
Exactly why Robles, who is homeless, was released over the weekend isn’t entirely clear. And it’s uncertain how long he will remain in custody this time. But the co-owner of the preschool, Tammy Lariz — who discovered the bloodied tortoise Jan. 30 — said her horror about the attack turned to anger Feb. 1.
“I was chewing out the police this morning,” Lariz said. “They were so kind, but really, you saw what he did to the tortoise. How can you let him go? He’s clearly a danger.”
She found a brick that had been pried from a pathway next to the log cabin and a chunk of concrete nearby, neither of which were there when she cleaned up after the Jan. 30 attack. The tortoise’s blankets had also been yanked from its enclosure. They captured the suspect on their security video camera, she said.
Robles had been booked on charges of felony vandalism and animal abuse Saturday at the Santa Clara County jail and placed on a 72-hour mental health evaluation hold. Suspects in those kinds of holds, however, often are released much sooner, and because of coronavirus concerns in the jails, many suspects are released on $0 bail after they promise to return to their next court appearance. It wasn’t clear Feb. 1 if Robles went to Santa Clara
Valley Medical Center for the mental evaluation or was released directly from the jail.
“Unfortunately, the only thing we can confirm is that he is no longer in our custody,” Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Gabaldon said Feb. 1. Valley Medical Center spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said they are looking into it.
“Do I think he should be out? Absolutely not,” San Jose Police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said Feb. 1.
Camarillo said that someone had first broken into the preschool Jan. 27, days before the tortoise attack, and according to the owners, stole the teachers’ ipads. Police planned to book Robles on two new counts of burglary Feb. 1, including for the Jan. 27 break in, Camarillo said.
The case began Jan. 30 when a neighbor saw a man yelling and throwing things in the preschool playground and called police. Officers captured the suspect as he fled. When Lariz arrived, she discovered Michelangelo near his miniature log cabin, bleeding.
The assailant had impaled wooden stakes — sixinch shards from a garden gate post — into the back of the tortoise’s shell. Lariz also found a rake handle shoved between the reptile’s head and leg, which she quickly pulled out, and shattered glass from flood lamps the suspect had unscrewed and broken on the animal’s back. The veterinarian found bloody shards of glass during surgery.
Lariz and her husband, Marc, put Michelangelo in a plastic kiddie pool and transported him in the back of their truck to San Jose vet Dr. Tal Solomon, who performed the operation to remove the stakes and repair his crushed shell.
“I’m shocked (Robles) was released, first of all,” Solomon said Feb. 1. “It comes back to the same problem that we have — arresting people isn’t the key. He needs mental health treatment.”
Michelangelo, meanwhile, “is doing great,” he said.
The vet installed a bolt in the tortoise’s back to gradually pull the crushed carapace back into place. The preschool owners were told from the rescue group that the tortoise was about 70 years old, but Solomon said he looked closer to 40 or 50. They can live to well above 100.
“He’s looking good,” Solomon said. “He’s definitely eating a lot more and is more active.”
Contact Julia Prodis Sulek at 408-278-3409.