A long-sought robbery suspect was offered a three-year prison sentence in a plea deal the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office proffered after waiting six months for the defendant to appear.
L.A. Police Department officers arrested Maria Elizabeth Delatorre, 32, of Van Nuys, just days before her 185-day bail bond-forfeiture notice was due, according to L.A. County Superior Court records online.
Delatorre also reported to Judge David Stuart that she was undergoing a substance-abuse treatment program while in custody, according to the May 22 minute order for Department I at the San Fernando Courthouse.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies investigated Delatorre and Nathaniel Rivas Jr., a co-defendant in the case, and accused them of being responsible for a series of thefts.
The DA’s Office charged the pair with 10 counts, in a criminal complaint that noted a history of similar charges for both defendants.
The pair were an early test of the voter-approved Proposition 36, according to station detectives, shortly after their arrest.
Proposition 36, which passed in 2024 with just over 68% of the vote, allows felony charges for possessing certain drugs and for thefts under $950, if a defendant has two prior drug or theft convictions, according to language on the ballot summary.
Station officials categorized the pair’s alleged thefts at Target as an “Estes robbery,” when a burglary is elevated to the more serious charge because a suspect uses force or fear on someone to complete the theft. That and the suspected serial nature of the crimes are part of why the Robbery Unit became involved, according to station officials.
Last year, detectives served a search warrant at the Canyon Country home of Delatorre and Rivas on Soledad Canyon Road, which investigators tied to an SUV seen at both crime scenes. A judge approved the search in February.
During their search, deputies found methamphetamine, a semiautomatic “ghost gun” and ammunition, according to the return of their search warrant in courthouse records.
At a May 2025 preliminary hearing, Judge Robert Sanchez DuFour found cause for Rivas to be charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and an allegation that he had one or more serious violent felony convictions. His second count was possession of ammunition with the same allegation.
DuFour dismissed two of the more serious counts against Rivas, a second-degree robbery charge and the same allegations regarding his prior conviction, and the relatively new organized retail theft charge and the prior allegation.
While DuFour also dismissed the organized retail grand theft charge and an allegation of criminal threats, he held Delatorre to answer to: a }petty theft with two prior convictions charge; second-degree robbery with an allegation that a firearm was used; assault with a deadly weapon with force, possible great bodily injury; felony possession of a firearm; and felony possession of ammunition.
Rivas has not yet appeared in court since he was held to answer. Last month, a motion was filed to postpone the forfeiture hearing in his case until November.
Delatorre is due back in court June 16. She’s now being held in lieu of $315,000 bail at the Century Regional Detention Facility, a women’s jail in Lynwood.
