Salinas police arrest three people connected to two jewelry store armed robberies

Salinas police say they’ve solved the two armed robberies at separate Don Roberto Jewelry stores. Investigators say they couldn’t have done it without the help of the employees and witnesses who came forward.

“It was a really fun case to work,” said Vincent Maiorana, Investigations commander for Salinas police.

In this case, all the pieces came together for Maiorana and his detectives.

“Working in partnership with police always has a good outcome,” Maiorana said, referring to helpful witnesses.

The first robbery happened July 3 at the location on East Alisal Street. Two armed suspects held up the store, threatening to kill a 4-year-old boy if they didn’t get their way, police said.

On July 20, the same suspects, robbed the same jewelry chain but at a different location. This time the two suspects pointed a gun at a pregnant woman, police said.

“We noticed that some of the behaviors that we saw on the jewelry store surveillance cameras was quite interesting to us,” Maiorana said.

But a break in the case came in the second robbery. Investigators noticed on surveillance footage that one woman stood out.

“It’s almost like they didn’t point their guns at this particular person. They were pointing them at everyone else in the store, they kind of avoided this particular person, it was kind of odd,” Maiorana said.

Connecting the dots, police said that woman was in on it.
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“Some concerned citizens came forward and started leading us in the right direction,” Maiorana said.

On July 24, police served multiple search warrants on the north side and arrested three suspects. They also found jewelry, guns and cash, investigators said.

Emeli Soto, 19, from Salinas, was arrested, and police said she was the suspicious woman in the surveillance video from the second robbery.

Police said she was romantically involved with Freddy Robledo, 22, from Soledad, and assisted him and Rigoberto Torres, 22, from Castroville, to pull off the heists. All three were arrested the day police served the search warrants.

Maiorana said they waited to announce the arrests in the case because they were tying up some investigative loose ends. He also added there could be more people involved that helped the three main suspects get the job done.