Felony charges filed against man accused of discrimination burglaries

Felony charges were filed today against a 26-year-old Palm Springs man who allegedly targeted people for burglaries based ontheir ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Paul Claudio Piermartiri was charged with three counts of burglary, withsentence-enhancing allegations of committing a felony because of the victim’srace. He is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon at the Larson JusticeCenter in Indio, according to court records.

Piermartiri was arrested shortly after 5:30 a.m. Friday at a localhospital, where he’d sought treatment for an injury. Earlier that morning, a 49-year-old man told police he was sleeping in his residence in the 400 block ofBella Cara Way in Palm Springs when he awoke to find a man standing next to hisbed, Palm Springs police Sgt. Harvey Reed said.

“The victim reported that he yelled at the subject, who then ran out ofthe victim’s residence,” Reed said.

He said officers found evidence at the scene indicating the suspect mayhave hurt himself, and discovered two residences in the area had beenburglarized.

Officers contacted local hospitals while looking for the suspect, andfound Piermartiri, Reed said.

“The officers’ investigation led them to believe that Piermartiri hadcommitted the burglaries and targeted the victims based on their ethnicity andsexual orientation,” he alleged.

Reed said he couldn’t elaborate on the ethnicity and sexual orientationallegations because the investigation was ongoing.

Piermartiri was booked at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility inBanning on suspicion of burglary, hate crimes and a violation of probation, andis being held without bail, according to jail records.