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A district court judge has ordered a 19-year-old suspected of committing a string of nighttime home burglaries earlier this year to stay in jail pending trial after he was picked up for a new crime last week.
Jesse Mascareno-Haidle was arrested on Oct. 25 after students at Rio Grande High School told an officer that someone was breaking into cars in the parking lot. He is charged with burglary of a vehicle, resisting or evading an officer and attempting to commit a felony.
“I can’t think of conditions of release that the court could generate – short of placing him in custody – that would protect the community, that would ensure he’s not getting more charges,” said Judge Britt Baca-Miller at a hearing Monday.
Earlier this year Mascareno-Haidle was charged with two residential burglaries, auto theft, larceny and receiving stolen property, but police say he could be linked to as many as 80 other burglaries.
Prosecutors asked for Mascareno-Haidle to be kept in jail pending trial in the other cases, but that request was denied. He was ordered to wear a GPS monitor, adhere to a curfew and follow other conditions of release.
The teenager has become a poster child in the legal fight over pretrial detention and in May District Attorney Raúl Torrez took the case to the state Supreme Court, arguing that he should not have been released and his conduct is an “enormous risk to public safety.”
At Monday’s hearing Mascareno-Haidle’s attorney, Noah Gelb, argued that his client had followed the GPS restrictions and therefore would likely also follow any new conditions – such as if he was basically put on house arrest.
“Just as the conditions that were tailored in the last case did seem to reduce or eliminate the threat of nighttime residential burglaries – there haven’t been any of those – it seems like those conditions were working,” Gelb said. “If the court finds that there is an additional concern of daytime unlawful behavior then the question is are there specific conditions of release that can address that as well.”
However, the judge disagreed, saying that the GPS did not prevent Mascareno-Haidle from accruing more charges.
She said while the newest allegations against Mascareno-Haidle are not violent, she was going to take into consideration that in two previous orders judges found he was a danger to the community.
“I don’t want to say he is (flouting) the judicial rulings, but I think it’s something where these aren’t helping him not commit crimes,” Baca-Miller said. “It’s certainly not helping the community remain safe.”
Suspected serial burglar detained pending trial - Albuquerque Journal
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