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Testimony begins in Ridgefield home invasion trial

By Paris Achen
Published: September 23, 2014, 5:00pm

Testimony began Wednesday in the jury trial of a Snohomish man accused of being a lookout during a home invasion robbery Dec. 19 in Ridgefield, in which a victim was tied up and several firearms were stolen.

Jarrod A. Wiebe, 27, is charged in Clark County Superior Court with first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, second-degree extortion, first-degree criminal impersonation, and 10 counts of firearm theft.

In an agreement with prosecutors, three of his friends, including the group’s ringleader, pleaded guilty Monday to multiple charges.

“The state’s theory is that even though Mr. Wiebe may not have been the actual person who commissioned these crimes, by virtue of (being an accomplice), he is just as culpable as his cohorts,” said Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu during opening statements Wednesday.

Wiebe’s attorney, Chris Ramsay, said Wiebe was outside the home at the time of the crimes and didn’t participate in threatening the victim, tying up the victim or demanding money and firearms from the victim.

“In the end, you are going to know the other three certainly committed all of these crimes, but you’ll have doubt about (whether) Mr. Wiebe’s contribution, if any, added up to accomplice liability,” Ramsay said.

Wiebe’s trial in front of Judge Scott Collier is scheduled to continue into next week.

On the day of the robbery, Wiebe, Larry C. Kyle, Ruben Vega and Regan C. Davis drove together in a white Isuzu Trooper from the Puget Sound area to the victim’s residence at a dairy in the 23000 block of Northwest Hillhurst Road in Ridgefield, Vu said. It’s unclear why the victim was targeted. He claimed he had never met his attackers, and the dairy is located in a rural setting within the city limits, Vu said.

Wiebe served as a lookout while his friends forced their way inside a mobile home, where the victim lived with his wife, Vu said.

” ‘Open the door,’ ” the men allegedly said, according to Vu. ” ‘We are the government. We are the police. We have been investigating you for a year. We know you have guns. We need to get in and get the guns.’ “

Either Kyle or Vega, who were dressed as law enforcement officers, tied up a 45-year-old farmworker who lived in the mobile home, Vu said. They demanded that the victim give them his firearms and $10,000, or they would report him to immigration, according to court documents. They ordered the man’s wife to guide them to where the firearms were stored and then stole the weapons, which they placed inside the Isuzu, court documents say. The farmworker said he had only $400 and gave the cash to his captors, Vu said. They then left.

Ridgefield police Officer Cathy Doriot, unaware a robbery had just occurred, stopped the Isuzu at 2:25 p.m. at Northwest Carty and Hillhurst roads because she noticed the vehicle didn’t have license plates, Vu said. Vega, 37, of North Bend, fled from the vehicle. Doriot called for backup. Police later found 16 firearms and police-style vests inside the vehicle, Vu said.

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Wiebe and the other two suspects, Kyle, 38, of North Bend, and Davis, 53, of Everett, were apprehended at the site of the traffic stop and taken into custody. A police dog tracked down Vega about a mile away, Vu said.

Ridgefield High School was locked down for more than an hour as a precaution.

As police searched, they received the report of the nearby home-invasion robbery, and the case began to come together.

Kyle pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery and second-degree extortion and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Vu said Kyle was the ringleader.

“My apologies to my co-defendants because they shouldn’t be here,” Kyle said.

Vega pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery and second-degree kidnapping and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The victim described seeing a wood-handled pistol in Vega’s pocket, Vu said. The pistol was later recovered, he said. Some of the firearms in the vehicle also were loaded, Vu said.

Davis entered an Alford plea, acknowledging that a jury could find him guilty, to first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and theft of a firearm. He is scheduled to be sentenced today.

His attorney, Renee Alsept, said that according to Davis, he was in the area to do some work for a woman in Kelso. Kyle said he needed to stop by the dairy farm in Ridgefield to pick up the belongings of a man named Francisco, Alsept said. Davis said he thought that the firearms they were loading into the vehicle belonged to Francisco, Alsept said. She said Davis was in and out of the residence and didn’t see everything that transpired.

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