A Portland man who, along with two others, broke the window of a van parked in north Clark County with a machete and demanded money from the couple inside was sentenced Wednesday to 14 months.
Ildefonso Ventura Garcia, 31, pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to two counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree theft. With credit for some time served, Ventura Garcia will remain at the Clark County Jail for about 30 days, the prosecution said.
Ventura Garcia was the third and final co-defendant to be sentenced. Daniel Ventura Garcia, 37, of Troutdale, Ore., and Juan Escamilla Murillo, 40, of Portland, were each sentenced last month to 366 days.
The three originally faced charges of first-degree robbery.
A Clark County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched shortly before 6 a.m. July 17, 2020, to Allen Canyon Park, just west of Interstate 5, for a report of a robbery.
Two victims told the deputy they had been sleeping in the van in the park’s small lot when three men abruptly woke them, demanded money and smashed the vehicle’s window with a machete, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The men were also wearing masks and holding guns, one of which was described as a revolver, according to the affidavit.
One of the victims, Tonya L. Broadfoot, handed over her purse containing her identification, debit cards and cellphone. The assailants then hopped in their minivan, with paper taped over its front and back license plates, and drove away, the affidavit says.
The other victim, Jesus Samalloa Garcia, gave chase east on Northwest 324th Street and reportedly rammed the back of the suspects’ vehicle multiple times, breaking off his front license plate in the process. He forced the fleeing van off the road at the intersection at Northwest 324th and 41st Avenue, court records say.
The van rolled to a stop in a field, and the suspects took off on foot. A deputy glanced inside the abandoned van and saw a machete and two handguns. Broadfoot’s purse was recovered from the van, too, according to the affidavit.
Deputies used a canine to track the three men. The search was unsuccessful, but the dog found a revolver in grass along the road, according to the affidavit. Later, it was determined that the revolver was a pellet gun.
A woman, who was on her way to work, told deputies she witnessed three men standing around the victims’ van and provided descriptions of them. Later that morning, an area resident called to report three men walking on their property, which was near where the van went off the road; deputies responded and detained the men, who matched the woman’s descriptions, according to the affidavit.
