LANCASTER – In late November of 2011, members of the Lancaster Station Burglary Suppression Team noticed a pattern developing in Lancaster, regarding a rash of residential burglaries occurring in a westside residential area.
Burglary team members began tracking the burglaries and canvassing the neighborhoods in an effort to identify the suspects in the burglaries.
It was believed that a group of individuals were responsible for the upswing in residential break-ins.
The primary items being targeted were televisions, personal electronic items, firearms and jewelry.
Burglary Suppression Team members over a two month period developed information from talking to citizens in the effected neighborhoods, and after talking to several suspects that were arrested for trespassing in a vacant home.
These leads enabled burglary team members to identify several persons believed to be responsible for the burglaries. As a result of the investigation, multiple search warrants were obtained, served, and subsequently five suspects were arrested, and numerous items of stolen property were recovered, including firearms and jewelry.
The suspects who were working together to commit the burglaries, were linked to multiple burglaries, and were charged by the district attorney’s office with multiple counts of residential burglary, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property .
The suspects arrested were identified as:
Jacob Fryer, 21 of Lancaster,- Travis Adame, 21 of Lancaster,
- Juan Montanez, 19 of Lancaster,
- Jonathan Navarro, 19 of Lancaster, and
- Mychael Foster 23.
With the exception of Mychael Foster, all of the suspects have taken plea deals, and have been sentenced to prison.
Jacob Fryer pled to a 9 year prison term with one strike, Travis Adame pled to a 16 month prison term, Juan Montanez pled to 3 years 8 months with 2 strikes, and Jonathan Navarro pled to 4 years 8 months with 1 strike.
Mychael Foster was offered a 3 year prison term, and if he turns it down, is possibly looking at 9 years in prison if found guilty.
Two of the suspects, Montanez and Navarro, both admitted during interviews that they were trading the property they stole for narcotics.
Montanez in addition to the burglary charges is also facing unrelated charges for assault with a deadly weapon and sales of narcotics. All four suspects are in custody at the men’s central jail in Los Angeles awaiting court hearings.
(Information via press release from the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station.)