The MENDOCINO COUNTRY Independent 4/15/10
   STANLEY FAMILY HOME INVASION

      On April 29, Anthony Melendez made a plea deal in the in a violent home invasion robbery on Branscomb Road near Laytonville two years ago. He pled guilty to first degree robbery of an inhabited home and kidnapping to commit robbery with a possible sentence of life with possibility of parole. He has two previous strikes, but the third strike will not be charged as a condition of the agreement. Special allegations were dropped. To form the factual basis for the plea, a transcript of the preliminary hearing of Johan Espinoza, a co-defendant, will be added to the court file. He was the robber identified as "Gold Shirt" in the preliminary hearing. He will be sentenced June 4 at 9am.
   On March 26, Angel Morales Orellana aka Juan Octavio Fernandez 33 of Long Beach was sentenced to a total of 30 years and eight months to life in state prison for his involvement in the crime.
     He must serve 27 years before he is elegible for parole.
    He was one of four men summoned by Johan Espinoza, 26 of Long Beach  who were recruited to do a "collection" from the Standleys,  a cannabis growing family.  Espinoza chanced to meet one Ryan Whitman, 35 in a Fort Bragg laundromat when Whitman told him he knew a marijuana grower with a large stash of cash and who owed him money. Whitman added the grower owned no guns because he was a "peaceful hippie." He asked Espinoza to gather a squad to raid the residence.
    At around 8pm on January 7, 2008, six men arrived at the Stanley residence in two vehicles and donned masks, agreed on code numbers to call each other in order to disguise themselves from the victims and five entered the house simultaneously through the front and  back doors. Michael Stanley was in the kitchen. He was taken to the floor and tied up using zip ties. One of the men went to the back bedroom where Nicole Standly was folding clothes with her two children, six and two years of age. He held them there while Michael was being tortured in the kitchen to get  him to reveal where his money was hidden.
     The thieves showed him a semi-automatic handgun and said they had a silencer. Michael felt the muzzle of the gun against his knee. They also used a taser on him by discharging it between his ribs and lowered his pants and stuck him with a fork in the buttocks.
    Believing he was about to be shot or his children harmed, he told the robbers where the money was. The location was a tree stump in the woods about a half mile from the house.
    Three of the men took Michael Stanley who was still tied up and forced him to accompany them to the tree stump where the money was hidden. They started out on foot, but then decided to take Stanley's Subaru to the hiding place. Once at the tree stump, they located a military ammunition can and a 10" wide black PVC pipe capped at both ends full of money.
    While they were doing this, one of the men remained in the room with Nicole and the juveniles. He blocked the door and prevented them from leaving while another man ransacked the house. Among the items taken were two flat screen televisions, digital cameras, jewelry, a video game, a computer, a satellite radio, and other valuable personal property.
    When the three men who had taken Michael to the money stash returned, they used duct tape and zip ties to bind Nicole Standley. They also used duct tape as an additional restraint on Michael Stanley. Both Nicole and Michael were placed in chairs and duct taped to the chairs. At that point they had run out of duct tape and   had no more to use on the children.
    Instead, the girls were placed in the bathroom The robbers tried to screw the door to the frame but could not find long enough screws. Instead they placed a large chair in front of the door to keep the children trapped inside.
    The robbers then left, and Michael was quickly able to free himself and Nicole, obtain a ride and give chase to  three of the robbers  who were driving a GMC Envoy. They reported the robbery to the Mendocino County sheriff's office via cellphone. Sheriff deputies joined the chase at Reeves Canyon north of Ukiah on Highway 101. The suspects were fleeing south at speeds in excess of 90mph.
    The Envoy driven by the suspects turned East off the Highway onto Talmage and took Old River Road south to Hopland with deputies in pursuit at 60 mph.
    At the Hopland Roundabout, deputies deployed a spike strip which took out three of the vehicle's tires, but the chase continued at around 5-10 miles per hour as suspects continued to drive the vehicle on its rims.
    The persuit continued for about another hour until the Highway Patrol closed off the freeway at the Sonoma County line and the three suspects,  Juan Octavio Fernandez, 34, Johan Espinoza, 23, and Ruben Salazar, 41, all of Long Beach were arrested by Mendocino County sheriff deputies.
    The Escort  they were driving contained all the jewelry and toys stolen from the Stanleys as well as the ammunition box and PVC pipe in which the cash had been hidden.
    During the prolonged chase, the robbers had not been idle. One counted the money while another stuffed bills into the passenger side door.   Johan Espinoza testified on January 28 that he had been told by Rueben Salazar there was more than $117 in the ammunition box and the PVC pipe as he inserted the bills a few at a time between the window and the doorframe. He also threw the pistol out the window, which police later recovered.
    He further testified it was Fernandez who held the gun to Stanley's knee and tortured him with a taser and a dinner fork. During that day, testimony indicated that the two other suspects in the robbery were "Tone" or Anthony Melindez, Graham Peterson and Ryan Whitman, local gang members.
    According to Nicole Stanley's testimony, Whitman apparently had done remodeling work on the residence, and had been asked to leave. His desire to get revenge and payment was the apparent motive for the robbery. It was he who apparently recruited the Southern Californians to help him carry out the heist.
    Fernandez, Salazar and Espinoza were given a map to the property, a schematic of the house, and assurances that the Stanleys would not be armed but were "big time" growers with lots of cash on the property. They were not told there would be children at the residence.
    On the above date, deputy in training Jason Tiche reported that he and sergeant Pomo searched the vehicle after the stop and recovered cash that had been stuffed under and between the seats. The total of the cash they recovered was $37,734 according to testimony of deputy Verdot who counted it at the Willits substation. That means that as much as $80,000 in Stanley family marijuana earnings was either ripped off by the deputies or left in the passenger door after the arrest.
    The Independent has been told by a confidential source that subsequent to the search and impoundment, the suspect vehicle was returned to southern California, and the cash in the door was recovered by confederates of the defendants and used to pay defense lawyers.
    In February, Fernandez was found guilty of 14 felonies including armed home invasion robbery, burglary, kidnapping, child endangerment, conspiracy and numerous other felonies and special allegations.
    Mistakes made by the robbers were to leave the victims alive, and allowing them to access a cellphone they had not discovered on the premises. The perpetrators also did not take into account that there are very few routes out of Mendocino County and that if they took the most obvious they could be intercepted.     They also should have not stolen the valuables from the house which were worth much less than the cash. The should also have left the ammunition can and the PVC pipe at the scene.
    These objects placed them at the scene of the robbery, whereas the cash would not have.
    According to  prosecutor Brian Newman, seven men participated in the robbery, and five have been caught. One of the missing suspects may be Graham Peterson, a local man. Another Southern California man is unidentified by law enforcement.
    Reuben Salazar, 42 of Long Beach pled guilty to seven felonies and one special allegation. He was sentenced to 15  years in prison. Espinoza pled guilty to seven felonies and admitted one special allegation. He awaits sentencing on May 28 and faces up to 15 years in prison. Whitman pleaded guilty to two felonies and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. 
    Prosecutor Newman told the press that this is "an example that people who grow marijuana put themselves in danger because they associate with people who do very violent things."