A multi-state crime spree which started in Colorado on Friday has resulted in the arrest of three people in Oregon. The Summit County Sheriff provided KPCW with an update.
Summit County Sheriff, Justin Martinez says the crime spree started with a murder in Denver, Colorado in the early hours on Friday morning.
“Car-jacked an Uber employee, killed that individual, stole his vehicle. They made their way through Colorado into Wyoming about four in the morning. They ended up robbing a convenience store at gun point, shooting at the security cameras. After that incident, they made their way to Summit county, into the Wells Fargo, committed their crime there. Held up the bank at gun point. Luckily no shots were fired, no one was hurt. The latest information is they were picked up in Oregon, running from law enforcement. Got into a little bit of shootout with law enforcement and no one was injured in that.”
Before their capture, an elderly couple in Oregon was injured in a car-jacking. The man was shot, and the woman was assaulted.
Martinez says the crimes cross multiple jurisdictions and he anticipates the charges being consolidated to the highest court which would bring the suspects back to Utah for trial.
“Robbing a bank is a federal crime. So, what they’ll look to do, is look to the jurisdictions to consolidate all them all into one court and have them tried for all their charges. Cause they will look at this as single criminal episode although they were individual in different states, the federal laws will supersede the individual states. So, we’re going to see if the federal government will bring them back, extradite them to Utah and hopefully try them for all the charges they’ve committed.”
Martinez thinks the two male suspects showed no interest in hiding their identity neither wearing masks nor concealing the Uber car they stole.
“They were so brazen. Almost to the point where they were making themselves a mark. They did nothing to try to conceal themselves which is really individual. These were obviously two people that really, I think, really wanted to have it out with law enforcement because they were not willing to hide behind anything.”
A report out of Roseburg Oregon identifies the two men as Matthew Fanelli, 30, of New Mexico, and Jose Lopez-Jovel, 31, of El Salvador. The two men were accompanied by a 19-year-old woman identified as Cynthia Sena.
