A Clark County jury found two Vancouver men guilty of committing a home-invasion robbery Dec. 4 in an apartment in Vancouver’s Sifton neighborhood. The two victims were tied up with cords and forced inside a bedroom closet.
Following a seven-day trial, Calvin J. Quichocho, 22, and Brandon English, 21, both of Vancouver, were convicted of two counts each of first-degree robbery, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault. They are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 14 by Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson.
The 12 jurors deliberated for 1½ hours before reaching the verdict.
“I think witnesses identifying them (in a photo montage) had a lot to do with it,” said juror Pam Nolin of Camas.
Quichocho and English robbed Austin Bondy and Brittany Horn at gunpoint inside a unit at the Prairie View Apartment Homes, 12611 N.E. 99th St., said Deputy Prosecutor Dan Gasperino.
Court records indicate the two men and John R. Lujan, 18, arranged to meet Bondy at his apartment under the ruse that they planned to buy marijuana from him. Instead, they stole valuables belonging to Bondy and Horn.
Once the suspects were inside the apartment, Quichocho drew a firearm from his clothing and pointed it at the victims. English shoved Lujan onto the couch and told him to stay down, according to court records.
Quichocho then ordered Bondy and Horn to get on the ground, court records say.
After Lujan bound the man and woman with cords, Quichocho again pointed the gun at the victims and told the man that “the bullets in the firearm were for him,” Clark County sheriff’s Detective Jared Stevens wrote in a court affidavit.
“We have testimony from both of the victims that they thought they were going to die,” Gasperino said. “They had a gun pointed at their face.”
Quichocho and English then forced the victims into a bedroom closet and told them to stay inside for at least an hour, according to court records. Quichocho and English left the residence with the victims’ marijuana, an Xbox 360, a wallet, a purse and a cellphone. They left Lujan inside the apartment with the victims “in an attempt to act as if he was not involved in the theft,” Stevens wrote.
Identifications questioned
English and Lujan were arrested soon after the incident, but Quichocho remained at large for three months. Sheriff’s detectives received a tip as to his identity last month and showed his photograph to the two victims, who identified Quichocho as the man who robbed them at gunpoint, according to court records. English also was identified in a photo lineup shown to the victims, Gasperino said.
During closing arguments, Quichocho’s defense attorney, Tony Lowe, argued that there were other men in Lujan’s social circle who looked like Quichocho, which he said created reasonable doubt as to whether he was the robber. There also was only one text message positively linking Quichocho to English, which was actually sent to Quichocho’s girlfriend, Lowe said.
English’s attorney, Bob Yoseph, said Horn initially indicated she couldn’t be positive that the photo of English shown to her by law enforcement was the man who robbed her but eventually said she was about 50 percent positive it was him. He said it was dark in the apartment at the time of the robbery.
Yoseph also said in text messages, Lujan said that his cousin and another man committed the robbery.
“He doesn’t say ‘Brandon’; he says, ‘my cousin,’ ” Yoseph said.
Gasperino rebutted that “cousin” also can refer to a close friend.
Lujan, who allegedly helped with the robbery when he was a juvenile, accepted a plea offer from prosecutors, agreeing to testify truthfully during the trial in exchange for a reduced sentence.
He has a hearing scheduled for early Friday in front of Judge Johnson.
