Big Bear City, May 4, 2013 – An employee of Community Market in Big Bear City is credited with tipping off the Big Bear Sheriff’s Station in the case of an armed robbery.
On the night of April 29, a masked gunman forced his way into the local Taco Bell and escaped with several hundred dollars from the cash drawers. On the morning of May 1, the Community Market employee reported that a man matching the suspect’s description was at the store trying to exchange numerous small denomination bills for larger ones.
Deputies arrested 38-year-old Big Bear City resident Justin Hernandez, who is on Post Release Community Supervision as a result of California Assembly Bill 109 for possession of stolen property. AB109 was passed in order to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring the California to lower its prison population by 30,000 inmates; offenders with non-violent, non-sexual and non-serious convictions now serve reduced sentences in county jails and are then placed on local supervision through the County’s Probation Department. Hernandez is being held in Big Bear Jail on charges of parole violations and felony robbery charges
Detectives of the Big Bear Sheriff’s Station have also named a Taco Bell employee, 24-year-old Alyssa Aguilar, as a suspected co-conspirator. Aguilar is currently on electronic monitoring work release under AB109 for a felony conviction of forgery charges. Deputies arrested her without incident at her Big Bear City residence this morning and booked into Big Bear Jail on felony charges of robbery.
Both suspects remain in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail each. Arraignment hearings are scheduled for May 7 at San Bernardino County Superior Court.
The majority of the $750.00 stolen from Taco Bell on April 29 has been recovered.
