Trial date set in gas station robbery case
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Thursday, April 9, 2009 10:45 AM PDT
Vale — Two individuals charged in connection to a January Ontario gas station robbery case pleaded not guilty Monday in Malheur County Circuit Court.
Juvenal Pineda, 18, and Loren Stewart, 18, are charged with three counts of robbery in the first degree and three charges of robbery in the second degree in the wake of an armed heist at the Ontario Shell Station.
“They will most likely be tried together,” Malheur County Deputy District Attorney Erin Landis said earlier this week.
The trial for Stewart and Pineda is scheduled to kick off June 15.
Police assert three individuals entered the gas station, and one man, waving a knife, ordered the three gas station employees to the floor.
OPD said the three then fled in a 1980 Toyota pickup.
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. Ontario Police Department Capt. Mark Alexander said in January 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.
Pineda and Stewart, were originally slated to plea in mid-February but had their plea date postponed until mid-March. Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said the defense attorneys in both cases asked for more time to compile evidence.
A third man police assert is connected with the incident, Clemente “Bobby” Pineda, 21, is also slated to plead on robbery charges later this month.
Police searched for Clemente Pineda for several weeks after the armed robbery.
Police discovered Pineda sleeping in an apartment March 26.
In other public safety news an Ontario man charged with first degree manslaughter in relation to the death of his girlfriend in August 2008 was sentenced to 185 months in jail Friday.
Marcos Delafuente, 34, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter March 24, was originally charged by a grand jury with murder in connection with the death of Apolonia Deleon, 20, Nyssa, in August. Deleon was found dead Aug. 24 at a home situated at 589 S.E. Seventh Ave., Ontario. Delafuente shared three children with DeLeon.
Last month, Landis said manslaughter normally comes with a sentence of 120 months, or 10 years. However, he said there were a number of factors that could increase the amount of time Delafuente will serve in prison.
Those factors include the fact a weapon was used in the manslaughter, the harm caused was greater than normal and Delafuente was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time.
Ultimately the sentence served by Malheur County Circuit Court Judge J. Burdette Pratt was 185 months.
However, that sentence does come with a stipulation as part of a Measure 11 statue which dictates the minimum amount of time a person must serve in crimes such as robbery, kidnapping, assault, rape and manslaughter.
“He’ll receive no good time on the first 120 months,” Landis said in a phone interview Tuesday morning.
After that, Delafuente could decrease the final 65 months by 25 percent by “behaving himself” in prison, Landis said in March.
In other court news, two men police assert are connected with a Shell Station robbery Jan. 4 plead not guilty to the robbery and received trial dates at their plea hearings Monday in Malheur County court.
