A 17-year-old boy is accused of participating in an armed robbery in the apartment complex where he lives in Vancouver’s Sifton neighborhood.
John R. Lujan and another suspect on Tuesday plotted to steal marijuana from a dealer in a unit at the Prairie View Apartment Homes, 12611 N.E. 99th St., according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court. Once inside, he said a co-conspirator pulled out a gun and turned on him, court records say.
His case was automatically remanded from Juvenile Court to Superior Court because of the violent nature of the crime. Lujan appeared Thursday in front of Judge Barbara Johnson on suspicion of two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of unlawful imprisonment and two counts of first-degree robbery. He is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 19 on the charges.
Johnson held Lujan on $75,000 bail and appointed Vancouver attorney Gerry Wear to defend him. Lujan will remain housed in juvenile detention, unless he posts bail.
Court documents indicate that Lujan went to the dealer’s apartment Wednesday with the co-conspirator and a third man and knocked on the door. The two men with Lujan were not identified in court documents. The male victim answered the door and allowed the three to enter the apartment. He brought marijuana from his bedroom to the kitchen, court records say. One of the unnamed suspects pulled out a revolver and pointed it at the victim and a woman with the victim. Lujan tied the two victims up with cords, court records say.
Then the armed suspect ordered Lujan to get down on the floor. The armed suspect put the two victims in a closet and left Lujan on the floor before he and the other unnamed suspect left the apartment with the victims’ marijuana, an Xbox 360, a wallet, a purse and a cellphone, according to court records.
Lujan admitted to participating in the planning and organizing of the robbery but told Clark County sheriff’s investigators that the other two suspects caused the robbery to get “out of hand,” court records say.
