32-year-old Palm Springs resident pleads guilty for role in robbery operation

A 32-year-old Palm Springs man has pleaded guilty to a felony charge for his role in a 2023 operation that started in Rancho Mirage in which a person was lured into a vehicle, driven away and robbed.

Nicholas Tyler Young, accused of being the driver in the robbery, entered the guilty plea on Tuesday to one felony count of robbery, according to court records. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 2.

Co-defendant Lucero Barraza Cagno, 33, of Indio, was charged with one felony count each of robbery, receiving a stolen vehicle, taking a vehicle without the owner's consent and possessing a leaded cane, according to court records. She pleaded not guilty to all charges in August 2023 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.

Her next scheduled court appearance is a drug court evaluation on Aug. 2, the same day of Young's sentencing.   

Deputies from the Palm Desert sheriff's station responded July 29, 2023 to a report of a robbery in an unincorporated area of Riverside County near Thousand Palms, according to Sgt. Jeff Cryder of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

It was alleged that a woman, who was at an establishment in the 32200 block of Bob Hope Drive, contacted the victim, who was subsequently lured into a vehicle in the parking lot, Cryder said. When the victim got inside the vehicle, two other suspects were also in the vehicle, which was driven off with the victim still inside.  

"After driving the victim to the area of Ramon Road and Thousand Palms Canyon Road, the driver of the vehicle brandished a black semi-automatic handgun and demanded all the victim's belongings,'' Cryder wrote in a statement.

The driver was described as a man with various tattoos covering his head and body while the other two suspects were described as two women, one in her 30s and one in her 40s, according to Cryder. Young was arrested Aug. 2 after being identified as the suspect driver. Cagno was later arrested after being identified as one of the women who lured the victim, and the other woman remained at large.

The Rancho Mirage Special Enforcement Team arrested Young during a traffic stop in the 68000 block of Ramon Road and Cagno in an unspecified area in Coachella.

According to court records, Young remains held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside without bail and Cagno remains held at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on $35,000 bail.