San Jose police arrest 4 suspects in smash-and-grab robbery at Valley Fair Mall
By Carlos E. Castañeda
Police arrested four suspects in a smash-and-grab robbery at San Jose’s Westfield Valley Fair Mall in January, with two of the suspects also linked to a separate armed robbery in San Jose days earlier.
The robbery at the Macy’s store at Valley Fair Mall happened on January 11 just before 1 p.m. The San Jose Police Department said four suspects used a sledgehammer to break open display cases and steal thousands of dollars worth of high-end watches, fleeing before officers arrived.
Officers identified two suspect vehicles and used the city’s automated license plate reader camera network to track and locate the vehicles, police said. One was found unoccupied in San Jose, the was found unoccupied in Fremont.
Investigators identified the four suspects as 31-year-old Devin Hairston of Oakland, 23-year-old Charlie Jones of Oakland, 24-year-old Emilio Sanchez of Hayward, and 18-year-old Roman Camarena of Stockton.
The investigation also determined that Hairston and Camarena were involved in a separate strong-arm robbery on December 31, 2025 at a jewelry store on McKee Road, east of N. Capitol Avenue in the Alum Rock neighborhood of East San Jose. In that case, police said the suspects also used a sledgehammer to smash a secured jewelry case, taking several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry.
Detectives obtained arrest and search warrants for all suspects and their homes, and during the execution of the search warrants, the detectives found possible evidence of the Valley Fair robbery.
Police said Hairston was arrested January 13 near Bakersfield for an unrelated crime by federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He was later taken to the Santa Clara County Main Jail and booked for armed robbery.
Plainclothes officers helped in the arrest of Sanchez on March 18 in Hayward and Jones on April 14 in Oakland. Each was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail for armed robbery.
San Leandro police arrested Camarena in Dublin on unrelated crimes and he was awaiting extradition to Santa Clara County as of Thursday morning. Jail records show that Camarena has been arrested multiple times in Alameda County since February, for crimes that include alleged sex crimes involving minors, robbery, burglary and conspiracy.
Anyone with information about these cases or similar cases was asked to contact Detective Grodin #4591 or Detective Leonard #4913 of the Police Department robbery unit at 4591@sanjoseca.gov and/or 4913@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277 4166.
