Men connected to local robbery arraigned

By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:51 AM PST

Vale — Two Ontario men police assert are connected to the armed robbery of a local gas station were arraigned on a grand jury indictment Friday and are slated to plead to charges Jan. 26 stemming from the incident.

Loren Stewart, 19, and Juvenal Pineda, 18, were each arraigned on three counts of robbery in the first degree and three charges of robbery in the second degree Friday afternoon at the Malheur County County Court.

The charges stem from a Jan 4. robbery of the Ontario Shell Station, situated at 1320 S.W. Fourth Ave. Police said three individuals entered the establishment, and one man, brandishing a knife, ordered  the three gas station employees to the floor.

“They took merchandise, cash and personal property from the three employees,” Ontario Police Department Capt. Mark Alexander said.

The three then fled in a 1980 Toyota pickup.

ADVERTISEMENT

Police eventually discovered the pickup on Southwest Fifth Avenue at Southwest Fourth Street. At the time officers discovered the vehicle, only two occupants remained inside. Police say Pineda fled and was later found hiding on top of a house in the 300 block of Southwest Sixth Avenue. He was apprehended. Stewart, the driver of the vehicle, was also arrested.

Alexander said the Ontario Police Department has not made a third arrest in connection with the robbery.  However, in a phone interview Tuesday, Alexander said the department still has several persons of interest it is looking into.

Pineda is slated to enter his plea at 8:45 a.m. Jan. 26, with Stewart slated to plead at 9:30 a.m.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said though Stewart and Pineda were originally charged with conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, burglary in the first degree and three counts of menacing, the D.A.’s office opted to only pursue the first and second degree robbery charges because of the fact the other charges are only misdemeanors.

“It makes it easier to only deal with the substantial issues,” he said.

Stewart also filed a speedy trial request, which Norris said is normally filed by the defense when the defendant is in custody.

Stewart also appeared on the docket for possession of methamphetamines, though Norris said that arraignment was not part of the robbery incident. Norris said officers pulled Stewart over Dec. 9 on suspicion of his connection to a graffiti incident and charged him with possession of methamphetamines, which is a felony.  Norris said the courts were in the process of working through the methamphetamine charge when the robbery incident came up.

Stewart’s MySpace page, an online social-networking site, currently lists his connection with “east side 13.”

Pineda also appeared on the court docket again to be arraigned for a probation violation stemming from unauthorized use of a vehicle, which is a felony. Norris said those charges stemmed from a juvenile conviction.

In other public safety news:

John Steele, 37, a Snake River Correctional Institution inmate pleaded not guilty to the aggravated murder of a fellow inmate, James Ivan Briggs, 61, Monday. Briggs was found dead in his cell in May. Steele is now set to go to trial Jan. 11, 2010. Norris said the state’s medical examiner listed Briggs’ death as a homicide by ligature strangulation.

Briggs was convicted out of Coos County in late 2002 for sexual penetration, sodomy and sex abuse. He was not set to be released until 2026.

Steele’s release date is currently scheduled for April 1, 2032. Prior to serving his current sentence, Steele was convicted of rape in the first degree and burglary in the first degree and was released Dec. 21, 2001.

He began serving his current sentence in April 2002 for two robbery charges out of Deschutes County.

While imprisoned in Umatilla County in 2002 on the two robbery charges, he was convicted on an assault charge and assaulting an officer, according to SRCI Community Coordinator/ Public Information Officer Amber Campbell.