BEVERLY HILLS—On August 7, 2024, a British tourist visiting Beverly Hills sat on the patio of his hotel’s café and was shocked when approached by a man who pointed a semi-automatic handgun at him. At the same time, another man took the tourist’s watch. In March, the first suspect, Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, who was born in Venezuela, pleaded guilty to one count of interference with commerce by robbery, and last month, the second defendant was sentenced.
His name is Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar, and he is from Colombia. The role he played in the robbery was that of the getaway driver, and the vehicle he and Rojas used was a blue Toyota Corolla. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, and he was also ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution.
The watch they stole is valued at $1 million and was recovered in Miami during an investigation into a similar theft from a few months ago.
The two suspects were arrested while driving their Chevrolet Equinox during a traffic stop. The U.S. Attorney’s Office believes the vehicle was also involved in a theft in August of last year of a watch on the 400 block of Doheny Road in Beverly Hills. The weapon was once registered to Christopher Dorner, a former LAPD officer who was killed twelve years ago during a shootout with police after he murdered four people.
By Daniel Diqiunzio