More charges filed against burglary suspect
Cape Coral police have filed additional burglary charges against Joey Ray Sepulveda, 23, who was arrested Saturday, July 4, for burglarizing a home on Southwest 1st Avenue in Cape Coral.
Sepulveda of 3023 S.W. Santa Barbara Place, Cape Coral, had been charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling and larceny in connection with the Saturday incident. Following further investigation, Cape Police Det. Jason Hicks has added another count of larceny, three counts of dealing in stolen property and three counts of violating the pawnbroker act for a burglary that occurred on May 20, 2009, at Southwest 13th Avenue.
On May 20, a resident filed a grand theft report with the Cape Coral Police Department for items that went missing from his home. According to a statement released by the CCPD, the victim said that two televisions sets, a laptop computer and personal checks were taken from his home sometime within the previous month. Det. Hicks checked several pawn shops in the area, and found that Sepulveda had allegedly pawned one television on April 23, the second television on April 27 and the laptop computer on June 5.
Sepulveda reportedly had used three different pawnshops to sell the stolen items. According to the May 20 burglary victim, Sepulveda is a relative and used to live at his residence.
At 2 p.m. on July 4, Cape police were dispatched to a burglary in progress at on Southwest 1st Avenue. The victim reported she had returned home to find a man in her kitchen. After being confronted, the suspect fled through the back sliding glass door. The victim told police that she left her home at 1 p.m. and noticed a man walking north on Southwest Santa Barbara Place near her home. When she arrived back home, she found the same man in her kitchen going through her personal belongings.
Police issued an alert for the suspect, and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office dispatched their helicopter to the scene. Chopper 1 located a male matching the suspect’s description walking east on Gleason Parkway. Police detained the suspect, who was identified as Sepulveda. The victim confirmed that Sepulveda was the person who was in her home, the police report said.
Sepulveda was arrested on an outstanding warrant for violation of probation and transported to the Cape police station. According to Cape police, a search of the victim’s home found that several bags had been stuffed with personal belongings and other items had been moved. An envelope containing Red, White and BOOM tickets was missing. Tickets believed to be the missing Red, White and BOOM passes were found in Sepulveda’s possession as was the wallet of the victim’s husband, police said.
Det. Hicks and Det. Josh Silko interviewed Sepulveda about the burglary that had just occurred, and detectives said he admitted he was at the home but was serving only as a “lookout.” The detectives then questioned Sepulveda about the thefts from the residence on Southwest 13th Avenue.
According to police, Sepulveda provided a statement admitting that he had taken the items from the residence and pawned them in Fort Myers.