Arrest of adult-teen robbery crew highlights new wave of ‘gang’ crimes
Police noticing new organized street crime because of same suspects, concentration of incidents and activity patterns
SAN JOSE >> A robbery crew made up mostly of teenagers has been arrested in connection with at least 30 robberies and carjackings in San Jose dating back to last spring and is being treated as a gang despite having no conventional gang ties, authorities said.
Seven adults and five juveniles — most of the adults are barely 18 with criminal histories as minors — were booked in either the Santa Clara County jail or juvenile hall on an array of suspected offenses that also includes burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and various theft, drug, and weapons offenses.
In nearly all of the incidents tied to them, firearms were brandished, and in at least two instances, they were fired, though no one was hit, San Jose police robbery Lt. Paul Joseph said.
Two suspects, 18-year-old San Jose residents Javis Anthony and Ezekial Brown, face the most serious charges after a victim was hit in the head with a brick during a robbery, according to San Jose police. Records show Anthony was free on bail for a residential burglary arrest when he was rounded up Jan. 10 with the other suspects, which included a teen wearing an ankle bracelet electronic monitor stemming from a prior arrest.
Besides Anthony, Brown, and the five minor suspects, whose names were withheld because they are underage, police also arrested San Jose residents Diego Diaz, 18; Jose Hernandez Pedroza, 22; Anwar Mohammad, 21; and Rafael Quintero, 18.
Aida Gutierrez, 42 was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment for allegedly allowing her home to be a gathering point for the other suspects, including her teen son, where unsecured firearms were present, police said.
Police said eight of the 12 suspects were on probation, and seven of those were on juvenile probation.
Diaz also faces a gang enhancement charge, highlighting a new wave of coordinated crimes involving young suspects who organize among themselves without the infrastructure of traditional street gangs. A purported teen carjacking crew arrested last month — which included an alleged 11-year-old getaway driver — was part of the growing trend that city gang experts described as “nontraditional groupings.”
“We consider it a gang. It meets the criteria of a gang,” Joseph said.
The commander said that patrol officers had come across several of the suspects for previous crimes, and began noticing a level of organization with both the concentration of incidents and their activity patterns.
“We kept seeing the same names arrested,” Joseph said. “There would be a weekend with 10 to 12 incidents in short order, and we kept getting in vehicle pursuits.”
He noted that the investigation that led to the 12 arrests, spearheaded by Sgt. Jaime Jimenez and Detective Michael White, led to eight search and arrest warrants being served in San Jose and one in Morgan Hill. San Jose police, joined by the Santa Clara County Regional Auto Theft Task Force and the District Attorney’s Office’s crime strategies unit, seized seven guns, a carjacked vehicle, replica firearms, cash, a stun gun, pepper spray, knives, and assorted stolen property including laptop computers, tablets, and car keys and key fobs.
The most fruitful search, at a home on Lotus Street near McLaughlin Avenue and Interstate 280, resulted in seven arrests, and the recovery of two handguns. A shooting associated with the suspects occurred near there, and Gutierrez, the mother of one of the teen suspects, was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment in part for allegedly having unsecured firearms around children.
Joseph said the sheer volume of the suspects’ alleged crimes occurred during a 2017 that saw a 42 percent jump in violent juvenile crime, a 22 percent rise in robberies with 1,682 instances, and a 35 percent jump in carjackings, to 109 incidents.
“This was significant,” he said. “Hopefully others will be apprehensive about going on a similar spree.”
Anyone with information about the case can contact SJPD robbery Detective Michael White or Detective Tedros Habib at 408277-4166 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP or at svcrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.