Two 18-year-olds suspected in La Quinta carjacking of elder woman plead not guilty
Two 18-year-old men suspected with two 16-year-old boys in an armed carjacking of a 75-year-old woman in La Quinta pleaded not guilty to felony charges today.
Daryl Haxiel Urbano of Coachella and David Reyes III of Palm Desert were charged with one felony count each of carjacking and robbery, according to court records. They additionally face sentence-enhancing allegations of being armed with a firearm.
They pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied the allegations Thursday afternoon at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
Due to the age of the teens, Cathedral City and Thousand Palms residents, information about their charges could not be shared, but according to Sgt. Josh Button of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, they were arrested in a separate carjacking in Palm Desert later the same day as Urbano and Reyes.
Deputies responded around 12:40 a.m. Tuesday to the 47700 block of Dune Palms Road in La Quinta to a report of a woman whose vehicle was stolen, according to Sgt. David Aldrich of the sheriff's department. She was approached by two 16-year-old boys, when one who was armed with a semi-automatic firearm demanded her vehicle -- a black Chevrolet Camaro -- and her purse. She was not injured.
The teens drove away westbound on Highway 111 in her Camaro while Urbano and Reyes allegedly followed in a white Lincoln sedan, Aldrich said. The two vehicles were seen by patrol deputies later that morning driving northbound on Village Court in Indian Wells.
When deputies attempted to stop the vehicles in the 44600 block of Village Court, "The Camaro failed to yield and fled westbound on Highway 111, (and) the Lincoln rammed a sheriff's patrol unit, disabling both vehicles," Aldrich said in a statement. "The suspects fled into the nearby residential area."
Patrol units set a perimeter in the area so the Riverside County Special Enforcement Bureau could conduct a yard-to-yard search, according to Aldrich. Reyes and Urbano were found in the 74900 block of Verbena Drive by around 7 a.m. and were taken into custody without incident.
They were both booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, where they remain held on $65,000 bail, according to court records.
Two teens were arrested later that day after deputies responded to the 34000 block of Monterey Avenue in Palm Desert, where a 21-year-old Coachella resident was attempting to sell his vehicle on social media to one of the teens who responded to his ad, according to Button. Instead, the two teens showed up and demanded his keys.
"When the victim refused, both suspects produced firearms,'' Button said in a statement. "One suspect struck the victim several times, threatened to kill him, and again demanded his keys."
The man was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries, but has since been treated and released, according to Button.
The teens fled in the vehicle, but quickly left it behind near the 74000 block of Jeri Lane in Palm Desert, where two firearms were found, according to Button. The teens allegedly fled on foot and were arrested shortly afterward near Gerald Ford Drive and Shepard Lane.
