A Portland man who allegedly robbed a man after ambushing and tying him up inside his Vancouver residence, made a first appearance Friday in Clark County Superior Court.
Gabriel Juarez Sandoval, 27, entered not-guilty pleas to first-degree robbery and theft of a motor vehicle in the Jan. 6 incident. He is being held on $50,000 bail. His trial was scheduled for July 16.
A co-defendant, Kaylee C. Osborn, 22, previously pleaded not-guilty to the same charges. Her trial is also set for July 16.
A third female suspect remains at large.
The victim, Josue Paredes Merino, told Clark County sheriff’s deputies that at about 4 a.m. a “skinny blond girl,” whom he didn’t know, knocked on the front door of his apartment in the 8900 block of Northeast 15th Avenue. She told Paredes Merino that she needed help and asked to charge her cellphone inside, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Paredes Merino allowed her to come inside and didn’t lock the door behind her. He said she stayed in the entryway as she made a phone call, the affidavit states.
Shortly after that phone call, a man and a woman, later identified as Juarez Sandoval and Osborn, respectively, walked into Paredes Merino’s apartment. He demanded that they leave, but they refused. He then asked for their names, and Osborn gave her first name, court records say.
Osborn told Juarez Sandoval that he needed to explain the situation to Paredes Merino. He then pulled a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at Paredes Merino’s head. He ordered Paredes Merino to go into his bedroom. The suspects bound his hands behind his back with a vehicle tie-down strap, court documents state.
The women then searched Paredes Merino’s room for items to steal. They took his wallet containing $1,200, car keys, cellphones and computer. They also stole a “significant amount of clothes” from his closet, the affidavit states.
Paredes Merino eventually escaped his binds, went outside and discovered that a gold Mazda sedan owned by his brother had been stolen, court records say.
He told investigators that he searched Facebook for all people named “Kaylee” and looked at their photos until he found Osborn’s photo and recognized her from the robbery, court documents state.
Investigators later learned that Osborn was spending time with a man who goes by the name “Bobby Gee.” A Facebook page with that moniker was later found to belong to Juarez Sandoval, and he was identified as one of the robbery suspects, the affidavit says.
The stolen vehicle was later recovered in Portland. A search of the car found a glass pipe with suspected methamphetamine and a duffel bag in the trunk containing toiletries and cleaning supplies, as well as a laptop and three cellphones. The phones belonged to Paredes Merino, the affidavit says.
