Aspen jewelry burglary suspect gets bond reduced

A suspect of Aspen’s November jewelry burglary received a bond reduction Tuesday, which he hopes to post. 

The suspect, who said he is a 44-year-old from Chile, received a bond reduction from $25,000 to $15,000 cash only. He was charged with multiple felony counts of conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary and one felony count of deception of a public officer — or using fake identification with police.

“I mean, if that’s a class four felony,” Defense Attorney Don Nottingham said of the fake identification. “I have a feeling there are a lot of folks in Aspen almost every Friday and Saturday night that also ought to be charged with a class four felony.”

The suspect allegedly had a hand in the burglary of Avi and Co., a luxury watch boutique in Aspen containing watches worth up to $400,000, on the night between Nov. 10 and Nov. 11, according to the case affidavit. Five suspects were recorded on video tunneling through the walls of the two adjacent businesses to access the Avi and Co. vault. The suspects escaped in a rental car in the early hours of Nov. 11 after two close calls with Aspen police. Four men were detained in Vail the following day after being pulled over in the rental car.

Nottingham said there is no evidence suggesting the suspect was one of the five caught on camera in the burglary itself. Rather he was accused of taking a video inside Forré Fine Art gallery — the gallery adjacent to Avi and Co. later tunneled through by the burglary suspects — the afternoon before the burglary, and was in the presence of the burglary suspects when pulled over in the rental car.

“Conclusively, he is not of the people on video inside other businesses,” Nottingham said, referring to the burglary video footage. “And then he was with some of the people who were inside those businesses. That’s like the whole evidence.”

More importantly, the suspect has no United States criminal history, Nottingham said. 

Nottingham requested a personal recognizance bond, which would allow the suspect to be released from jail without paying money if he followed court orders. 

Prosecuting Attorney Sarah Nordgaard argued against the personal recognizance bond, given his “complete lack of ties to this community.” 

“The concern is just we’ll never see him again, and that’s not fair to the people, not fair to the community,” she said.

Judge Laura Makar agreed to lower the bond from $25,000 to $15,000 but rejected a personal recognizance bond given the evidence.

“With respect to the concern about providing potentially false information to a public official,” Makar said. “I mean, that’s a crime for a reason. And telling people you’re someone you’re not is serious.”

She added that, though it sounds like the suspect has family ties in Orlando, Florida, he failed to tell officials the address in Orlando or provide his cell phone number.

Makar scheduled the suspect’s’ arraignment for April 7. 

Two of the other suspects — a 34-year-old from Peru and a 41-year-old from Buenos Aires — associated with the burglary remain in the Pitkin County jail awaiting further court proceedings. The other detained suspect, a 35-year-old from Chile, was released on bond and transferred to Aurora by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, but also awaits further Pitkin County proceedings.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.