GILROY
– Two more suspects in a Jan. 8 burglary of a Gilroy Premium
Outlets jewelry store have been detained with the help of the Los
Angeles Police Department.
GILROY – Two more suspects in a Jan. 8 burglary of a Gilroy Premium Outlets jewelry store have been detained with the help of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Los Angeles police arrested Benny Harris, 39, and Antonio Neely, 35, both of Los Angeles, on charges of commercial burglary with an enhancement for taking more than $50,000 in goods, felony evasion and felony vandalism for their part in the heist of $125,000 worth of jewelry from the Zales jewelry store at the Gilroy Premium Outlets, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Smith said.
“Harris was identified by the video taken during the burglary of the store,” Smith said. “Neely is tied to the car, in terms of documents and the renting of the car.”
The car used in the robbery, a gray Pontiac, was rented by a friend of Neely’s. The rental papers were torn up and thrown out of the car by the suspects, but police retrieved pieces of the document and put them back together, Smith said.
Harris and Neely both have prior prison commitments and several of the burglary suspects have prior “strikes” against them, Smith added.
Harris and Neely join Willie Cross, 37, and Victoria Jefferson, 27, on charges of burglarizing the store. Cross was captured in a manhunt following a 40-mile car chase toward Interstate 5, and Jefferson, who was driving the car, was apprehended when she stopped the vehicle to let the other suspects flee.
All four suspects also had been charged with fleeing police causing serious injury to an officer, but the charge was diminished to fleeing police.
“There was no serious injury reported by the police officer,” Smith said. “He was able to walk it off.”
Smith said the district attorney’s office intends to try all of the suspects together. Cross and Jefferson appeared in court in San Martin Tuesday for a pretrial hearing, but it was pushed back until Feb. 13 in hopes that Harris and Neely will be transferred here to join them in court.
Smith said police are still looking for a fifth suspect, and the investigation is ongoing.
