By Julietta Bisharyan
SACRAMENTO – Halfway through her testimony, Sacramento Police Officer Michelle Powell’s Wi-Fi cut off during the Zoom livestream, leaving the public defender’s last question hanging in the air.
“It wasn’t that tough of a question,” quipped Assistant Public Defender Stephen Nelson.
During the preliminary hearing at Sacramento County Superior Court, several police officers testified on an attempted burglary case involving four defendants.
Allegedly, on Sept. 29, 2019, defendants John Kelly, Deandre Reid, Elijah Romero-Antoniad and Jelani Steward tried to break into and burglarize three houses in Sacramento, and it led to a high-speed car chase with a helicopter following them overhead.
Deputy District Attorney Andrea Morris first called Officer Nathaniel Reason to testify via Zoom. Reason spoke with one of the victims that was nearly burglarized that day. According to the victim, she was asleep at home when she heard a banging noise. When she got up to look out her window, she saw four men trying
to pull open her security screen door.
When the victim banged on her window, the suspects pulled on the door harder, startling the homeowner. She immediately called 911 and told the suspects that the police were on their way. The four suspects, who were then standing in her backyard, ran away.
A Glock replica pistol was left in the homeowner’s yard.
Officer Derek Calabrese was called next. On the day of the incident, he and another officer were dispatched to follow a white Land Rover on the freeway, which appeared to have five individuals inside.
Calabrese said he initiated a traffic stop but the vehicle sped away at 115 mph. The Land Rover almost crashed as it was snaking around other cars on the road. During the chase, Calabrese was communicating with the helicopter that was flying overhead.
After awhile, Calabrese stopped pursuing the vehicle and let the helicopter track where the car was headed. He was notified that the vehicle had parked in a driveway and five individuals had exited, running in different directions.
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After the suspects had fled from the car, Officer Michael Pinola testified he found Romero-Antoniad hiding in a shed, two blocks from where the Land Rover was parked, with the help of his police dog. There he detained the defendant after the dog bit the defendant’s left arm.
Kaitlyn Gunther, Maile Reason, and Theresa Langhus—three forensic investigators with the Sacramento Police Department—each gave their testimonies next. They had arrived at the scene of the robberies to take photographs, dust for fingerprints and collect swabs for DNA testing.
Langhus found that the palm prints matched Reid’s. When asked to identify him in the courtroom, she was did.
Officer Michelle Powell spoke with the second homeowner who was burglarized, and he said he had just arrived home when five teenagers approached him inside his garage. One was pointing a gun at him and three were holding knives. They asked him for his money, and the victim quickly gave them his wallet.
The victim, who spoke Cantonese, used an interpreter to speak with Powell. He told her that all five suspects were wearing hoodies and looked to be anywhere from 10 to 20 years old.
The victim’s neighbor also saw the incident. He told Powell that he only saw four individuals and no weapons. Initially, he thought that his neighbor knew the teenagers and was just sparking conversation with them. After seeing them run toward the Land Rover, he called the police and wrote down the license plate number.
During Nelson’s cross-examination, Powell’s Wi-Fi suddenly cut out, and she was disconnected from the Zoom call. After several attempts to contact her, Judge Ernest Sawtelle asked Morris to call in the next witness.
Derrick Cannedy, a detective with the neighborhood crimes unit, testified next. He investigated the third and final robbery that took place that day.
According to the third victim, she and her roommate had left their house in the early afternoon, leaving it locked. When they came back, she noticed that their front door had been forced open. Their flat screen TV, Sony PlayStation 4, wireless Bluetooth speaker, a necklace and a Michael Kohrs watch were missing.
Surveillance footage showed four individuals walking to and from their front door. One video shows a subject trying to jump and rip the camera down.
When officers later searched the Land Rover, all those items were found inside, including the wallet that had been stolen from the second victim.
According to Cannedy, a fifth suspect has been identified as 17-year-old Luis Jefferson-Butler, though he is not currently in custody.
Once Cannedy was dismissed, Powell was able to return to the Zoom call to answer any final questions from the attorneys.
“Any other follow-up questions? Don’t feel compelled to do so, only if you have them,” said the judge.
After hearing arguments from counsel, Judge Sawtelle concluded that there is an overwhelming amount of strong evidence to hold each defendant to answer at trial, calling the incident a “textbook attempted burglary.”
He advised the parties to consider drafting a plea deal, as their chances in trial do not look good.
Morris asked to increase the scheduled bail amount for each defendant from $150,000 to $250,000.
An arraignment on the information has been scheduled for Sept. 4 at 8:30 am in Department 62.
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