Woman pleads not guilty in storage unit break-in that included theft of child’s ashes
A woman suspected in a break-in at an Indio storage unit, where items were stolen including the ashes of the victim's deceased son, pleaded not guilty today to felony charges.
Taylor Spencer, 31, of Thousand Palms pleaded not guilty at the Larson Justice Center in Indio to one felony count each of burglary and receiving stolen property, according to court records. Her next court appearance was set for April 15.
She was initially set to be arraigned on the charges in December, but did not appear in court and a warrant was issued for her arrest, which was recalled in January.
Co-defendant Wally Venecia, 43, of Indio is charged with receiving stolen property. Victor Banuelos, 54, of La Quinta is charged with three felony counts of being a convicted felon and narcotic addict in possession of a firearm, and one felony count each of receiving stolen property, possessing controlled substances while armed and possessing ammunition.
Venecia's next court appearance was set for Wednesday, while Banuelos' was set for March 12.
Juan Carlos Molina of Indio, 36, pleaded guilty Nov. 28, 2023 to one felony count of burglary and was immediately granted one year of supervised release.
The burglary occurred in November 2023 at Prime Storage in the 42900 block of Madison Street, according to the Indio Police Department. Detectives pursued multiple leads over the following days, during which two traffic stops and a search warrant led them to arrest Molina.
Detectives then allegedly found some of the victim's belongings at a Bermuda Dunes motel, prompting a search warrant to be served in Palm Desert, where Banuelos was arrested for allegedly having a large amount of the victim's property, an assault weapon, additional handguns and 1 1/3 pounds of methamphetamine for sale.
"Due to the continuing investigation, the child's ashes were dropped off at Cal Fire Station No. 81 (in Palm Desert),'' police said. "Detectives quickly responded to the fire station and contacted the Riverside County coroner, who was in possession of the ashes of the victim's child."
The ashes were delivered to the family, and two additional suspects -- Venecia and Spencer -- were subsequently found and arrested in Coachella, according to police.
The three defendants were free from jail on varying bail bonds.
Anyone with additional information on the alleged burglary was asked to call Detective Andres Meraz at 760-541-4120 or Valley Crime Stoppers anonymously at 760-341-7867.
