ST. GEORGE — Three suspects were arrested after officers found thousands of dollars in alleged stolen property, much of which was stuffed in bags that were full, as the women were seen leaving Red Cliffs Mall.
Officers responded Jan. 15 to a suspicious persons call at a parking lot on Red Cliffs Drive where they spoke to a passerby who said two men were walking around the parking lot with their hoods pulled over their heads and one had gloves on.
The suspects appeared to be peering into unoccupied vehicles as they wandered through the parking lot, and the witness called authorities to report the activity, police said.
Officers located two men who matched the description provided by the 911 caller and were standing next to a minivan with a temporary tag out of New Mexico.
Officers also noted there were several children inside the vehicle.
One suspect told police they had come to the mall with several women who were inside shopping, and the pair was waiting for them to return.
The males then changed their story and said the women were buying lunch at McDonalds inside Red Cliffs Mall. As officers told the pair there was no McDonalds inside the mall, a group of women approached the van.
Officer’s suspicions were raised when they noticed the women were standing around the van carrying bags full of property, but the bags did not belong to any of the stores in the mall.
In one bag officers found merchandise from Victoria’s Secret, and when the suspect, identified as Delia Padron, 27, of Maracaibo, Venezuela, was asked for the receipt, she told officers she could not provide one.
During a search of Padron’s bag, officers found multiple items but no receipts, which the suspect said was because she had purchased the merchandise from stores in Cedar City.
A second suspect, Yenesis Moya-Ruiz, 34, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, also had a bag full of merchandise and told officers she had no receipts for any of the items. Inside the bag officers also found a make-shift device designed to prevent theft detection alarms from activating.
Officers also spoke to a third suspect, Roxairis Calderon, 29, of Caracas, Venezuela, whom they saw walking out of the mall carrying a bag full of property but had “no receipts for any of it,” the officer noted.
The suspect said she was holding the bag for someone else, telling officers “she wasn’t stealing any of it,” and when pressed further, the suspect said the bag belonged to Ruiz.
Inside of the van, officers recovered a large amount of property they suspected was stolen, including bags containing multiple pairs of shoes, clothing and other items. What officers did not find were any store receipts, nor any bags that came from the retailers where the items were reportedly taken from.
During a series of interviews, none of the women admitted to taking any property, and they continued to tell officers “they got the property at other stores in the mall,” the report states.
Shortly after 7 p.m., all three were then transported to jail and each was booked on a theft charge, a class A misdemeanor, since between $500-$1,000 worth of property was recovered from each of the suspects. The suspects were booked into jail where they are being held on $2,000 each.
On Wednesday, Calderon made an initial appearance before District Judge Eric Gentry, on the misdemeanor theft charge, as well as three additional charges, including one second-degree felony count of unlawful pattern of behavior and two additional counts of theft, charges that were filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office prior to the court appearance.
When the defendant asked about bail, Prosecutor Courtney Brinkerhoff-Sinagra told the court that an FBI check revealed the defendant had a prior criminal history, in addition to an alien status of inadmissibility with the Department of Homeland Security.
An alien status of inadmissibility generally applies to any individual who is not permitted by law to enter or remain in the United States, typically because they either have a prior criminal history that includes multiple convictions or have been convicted of certain crimes.
The prosecutor said the investigation revealed that Calderon traveled from out of state to commit the crimes.
Sinagra also said the state was concerned the defendant may flee if released and asked that bail be reviewed.
The defendant told the judge she had a local address that she provided to the court, and as far as her alien status, the defendant said when she crossed into the United States via the Southern border, she was given a future court date on her immigration status.
The judge told Calderon he found the probable cause statement filed in the case “concerning,” and while the bail amount remained unchanged, Gentry did amend the bail order to a cash-only bail and scheduled a review hearing for Jan. 24.
No further information was released regarding the two subjects that prompted the police call and neither of the men were arrested in connection with the incident.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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