Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested six suspects in a nighttime residential burglary case. A call came Sheriff’s Dispatch at about 11:45 PM on Sunday night, May 5th. The caller stated that his neighbor who lives in the 6000 block of Eagle Ridge Rd in Rohnert Park is on an extended absence from his home and he has been watching the home for him. He reported that several people were at the home and appeared to be burglarizing it.
Deputies responded and observed a truck and trailer in the driveway of the home with several people moving about the residence. The deputies surrounded the home and called in the CHP helicopter. Deputies moved in and detained six suspects, five in or about the home and one suspect identified as Antonio Ruben Diaz Jr. 36 of Santa Rosa was caught running through brush behind the home.
Deputies found several items from the home placed into the suspects’ truck. Attached to the truck was a utility trailer which was loaded with a Kubota tractor taken from the Eagle Ridge home.
After a lengthy investigation deputies learned that Diaz Jr. used to work for the elderly homeowner and when he found out the homeowner was away for an extended time he took advantage of the situation and had been coming to the home over the past three weeks and essentially taking everything.
Sheriff’s Property Crimes Detectives followed up and wrote a search warrant for Diaz Jr’s home in the 300 block of Scenic where they located numerous other stolen items from the Eagle Ridge home.
Arrested were the following:
Diaz Jr., Antonio Ruben 36 Santa Rosa
Rigney, Howard 49, Santa Rosa
Nash, Ryan, 32, Rohnert Park
Hance, Thomas, 32, Petaluma
Winder, Robin, 27, Santa Rosa
Cortez, Ashley, 35, no address listed
Deputies also located Cortez’ 12-year-old son with her during the commission of the burglary. The boy was released to a relative and all suspects were additionally charged with child endangerment along with burglary, grand theft and conspiracy charges. They were all booked into the Sonoma County Jail on $50,000 bail resulting from this case.
