Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Two arrested in Arkansas in Benton Home Invasion

From The Bossier Parish Sheriff's Department:
Two more people have been arrested in connection with a home invasion that took place in the 200 block of Hurricane Bluff in Benton early last Thursday morning, said Bossier Sheriff Larry Deen.
Juan Jose Martinez-Flores, 25, of Springdale, Arkansas, and Mark William McKinney, 55, of Rogers, Arkansas, were taken into custody Friday. Martinez-Flores is being held in Springdale, and McKinney is incarcerated in Rogers. Both are fighting extradition.
Their arrests came after three Bossier Sheriff’s investigators went to Springdale and Rogers in an attempt to piece together the events of Thursday morning. With the help of police departments in Springdale and Rogers, they gathered intelligence information that led them to Martinez-Flores and McKinney.
At least one other suspect is still being sought. Miguel “Bear” Escutia, 39, is also believed to be from the Springdale area and is thought to be one of four men who broke into the home of a 68-year-old woman. Bossier Sheriff’s detectives say Escutia, Martinez-Flores, Ricardo Aleman Palos and Gerardo Cortina took a safe and some jewelry from the house. Palos, 35, of Springdale, and Cortina, 26, originally from Elgin, Illinois, are being held in the Bossier Maximum Security Facility, having been captured Thursday. They, along with Martinez-Flores, are charged with aggravated burglary, false imprisonment and simple battery of the infirmed. Investigators say McKinney, who is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, was the source for the information about a safe being in the house.
The incident began just after midnight on Thursday, Feb. 25th, when the victim was awakened by her dog barking and was confronted by at least three males in ski masks and dark clothing. They bound her with duct tape at the ankles and wrists and put some over her mouth. They kept demanding, “Where’s the safe?”, and repeatedly told her they were not going to harm her.
The men rummaged through the residence and eventually found a safe. They took it and some jewelry and fled the scene in a pickup truck. At that point, the victim, who suffered only a minor injury, was able to free herself and call the Bossier Sheriff’s Office, at which time a B.O.L.O. (be on the lookout) was issued, instructing law enforcement agencies to watch for a suspicious pickup truck.
A Bossier Sheriff’s deputy soon spotted a pickup truck on La. Hwy. 3 at Cash Point Road and saw a large object under a tarp in the bed of the truck. The object looked like a safe. The deputy continued to follow the truck which began to weave from lane to lane in an effort to get away from the deputy.
The truck led the deputy into the Greenacres Subdivision in Bossier City and back out onto Hwy. 3. In the 3900 block of Hwy. 3, the truck stopped, and all four men fled. The deputy was able to apprehend Palos, but the other three men escaped. Cortina was arrested by detectives later that day. At this point, of the four men that entered the house, only Escutia is still at large.
More arrests are possible.

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