San Jose police say they have busted the “Shotgun Bandits,” using a sergeant’s hunch about a lover’s loyalties.
Last month, a group of masked robbers went on a dangerous spree, police said, bursting into at least seven businesses armed with a sawed-off shotgun and snatching fistfuls of cash from the registers as employees and customers cowered in fear.
But investigators eventually caught up with the suspected robbers, after a sergeant became suspicious about a manager at one of the targets – a lingerie store called Cupid’s Corner.
Jessica Tovar, a 22-year-old San Jose woman, is being held on $200,000 bail. She is charged with one felony count of robbery. Her boyfriend, Michael Washington, 25, faces up to 85 years in jail on 16 counts of felony robbery. He is being held with no bail.
Another suspect, Gabriel Navarro, 26, is charged with three felony counts of robbery. He is also being held on $200,000 bail. All three, who were in Santa Clara County Superior Court this week, are scheduled to enter a plea next week.
The armed-takeover robberies – rare and dangerous crimes – began at a Little Caesars pizzeria March 28. By the beginning of April, the so-called Shotgun Bandits had hit five other businesses: another Little Caesars, two Subways, a Pizza Hut and a Taco Bell. They were all in a swath of southwest San Jose except one – a Subway nearby in Campbell.
And oddly, at the climax of the night of April 2 during which the bandits robbed two fast-food joints within half an hour, they hit Cupid’s Corner, known for its sexy lingerie. That didn’t fit any pattern. But security videotapes confirmed it was the bandits.
Patrol and robbery units began to stake out fast-food restaurants in the area, trying to figure out where the bandits would strike next.
Meanwhile, Sgt. Michael Montonye – in charge of the cases – began focusing on a longtime employee at Cupid’s Corner. Why did she seem so relaxed, facing down two men in black and a sawed-off shotgun? Why hadn’t she pressed the store’s panic button?
“She looked too calm,” Montonye said.
Further investigation showed she had a boyfriend, an ex-convict who seemed to closely fit the description of one of the robbers.
Looking at the pattern of robberies, Sgt. Dave Newman, a supervisor with the San Jose Police MERGE unit – also known as the SWAT team – began staking out the Malone Road home with his team. He knew the bandits always struck right about 9 p.m., always on a Wednesday or a Friday.
But soon Newman figured they were too dangerous not to watch full time.
Good thing, too, because the robbers hit again April 17 – a Thursday – this time another Subway sandwich shop.
Minutes after the robbery, two of the suspects – who police identified as Washington and Navarro – pulled up in the driveway where Tovar and Washington lived. Newman’s team moved in.
When they arrested them and began searching the vehicle, police found wads of stolen money. Navarro allegedly told them: “The shotgun isn’t in my vehicle. I don’t know where it is, but it isn’t in my truck. My prints aren’t in it.”
The officers hadn’t asked him about the shotgun, according to police.
On Tovar and Washington’s bed in plain view was a hold-up costume police had seen several times in the surveillance tapes of the robberies: a hoodie and a black Oakland Raiders beanie with eye holes cut out.
The shotgun was propped up near the closet. It was loaded.
“That’s not a gun used for hunting,” Montonye said.
Washington told arresting investigators he was on his way to pick up Tovar at Cupid’s Corner.
Police picked her up instead.
Contact Sean Webby at swebby@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5003.
