Police find gun, stolen property and stolen vehicle
Morgan Hill – It started with a call about an aggressive dog, but ended with six people arrested and three small children removed from a home on Church Street.
The incident Wednesday morning began when a local animal control officer arrived at 16155 Church St. He checked the license plate number of a car parked in the driveway and discovered that the vehicle was stolen from Milpitas, Morgan Hill Police Special Operations Sgt. David Swing said.
“While we were waiting for RATTF (Regional Auto Theft Task Force) to arrive, we sent officers to watch the house,” he said. “We learned two residents of the home were on probation.”
Several RATTF officers arrived at the residence and police Detective Mindy Zen and officer David Ray assisted in conducting a search of the residence.
As a result of the search, six people were arrested and booked into Santa Clara County Jail.
Diane Gomez, 39, of Morgan Hill, was on probation for auto theft. She was arrested on suspicion of probation violation, possession of a short-barreled shotgun and child endangerment.
Swing said the shotgun was modified, cut off at the barrel and stock.
Gomez’s son, Ray Andrade, 19, of Morgan Hill, was also arrested. He had been released from county jail about one month ago on drug-related charges, Swing said. Andrade was arrested on suspicion of probation violation and possession of a short-barreled shotgun.
Robert Luna, 38, of Gilroy, was arrested on an outstanding $20,000 warrant for drug-related charges. Joseph L. Catano, 25, a parolee-at-large on was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
Romero J. Martinez, 48, of San Jose, was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of a stolen vehicle, but also had a no-bail warrant for possession of a controlled substance and possession of a deadly weapon, and warrants for driving on a suspended license and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Lisa C. Chavez, 27, of Morgan Hill, was arrested on suspicion of forgery and possession of stolen property because of items found on the property.
Swing said four other adults were in the residence at the time of the raid but were released without charges. Gomez’s three young children were removed from the home and turned over to Child Protective Services.
“Auto theft is up in Morgan Hill for the first six months of the year,” Swing said. “What happened yesterday is a good example of cooperation between our special ops division and patrol team and RATTF. That collaborative effort allowed us to be successful. We had RATTF on scene in 20 minutes, and undercover officers in five minutes, which allowed us to do some surveillance work.”
At one time there were 12 Morgan Hill police officers at the scene, which included all patrol officers and special ops personnel, Swing said.
