An 18-year-old man is accused in an October robbery in the Rose Village neighborhood, during which he and two other suspects allegedly armed themselves with handguns and forced their way into an apartment.
Josiah William Rodriguez was arrested Monday on suspicion of first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and first-degree kidnapping.
He made an initial appearance Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court and entered not-guilty pleas to the charges. His trial was scheduled for Feb. 19. In the meantime, Rodriguez is being held on $500,000 bail, court records show.
Vancouver police officers were dispatched shortly after 1 a.m. Oct. 31 to 2010 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., for a noise complaint. They spoke to two 18-year-old women who said they were just robbed at gunpoint inside their apartment. A witness at the address also told police a third 18-year-old victim was riding his bicycle down the street when he was shot at by an unknown person in a silver vehicle, according to a probable cause affidavit. The teen was uninjured.
One of the three victims told police she was inside the apartment when several armed males wearing masks entered the apartment and took her cellphone and vape pen. The second victim said the men woke her up and demanded her cellphone. When she told them she didn’t have a phone, they ransacked the apartment, according to the affidavit.
Officers noted “furniture (was) broken and overturned in the apartment,” the affidavit says.
The third victim listed in the affidavit jumped out of a second-story window to escape the robbers. He was then shot at about a block from the scene of the robbery, according to the affidavit.
Nearly a month later, on Nov. 19, detectives interviewed 15-year-old Robert D. Knezevich. He said he went to the apartment, armed with a 9mm Ruger, looking for “Stephan.” Knezevich said he kicked the door open and couldn’t find who he was looking for so he took a woman’s personal belongings and left, according to the affidavit.
Knezevich also said that when he was driving away from the apartment, he pulled up next to the third victim and shot at him once, according to the affidavit. He believed he may have shot the victim, he said, but did not stick around to find out.
According to court records, Knezevich admitted to participating in the home-invasion robbery and robbing a Chevron gas station, as well as attempting to kill rival gang members.
Knezevich said he was an active, working member of the Norteño gang, according to court records, and that he twice tried to kill a man.
The affidavit filed in Rodriguez’s case does not say how detectives tied him to the home-invasion robbery.
Court records indicate a third suspect has not yet been arrested.
