A judge ordered a pretrial conference next month for a woman accused of theft and weapons charges from Santa Clarita Valley retail stores, after a plea discussion apparently broke down.
Maria Delatorre, 32, of Canyon Country, was offered a three-year plea deal last month, according to L.A. County Superior Court records, a proffer discussed during her June appearance at the San Fernando Courthouse.
Delatorre was brought to her hearing from the courthouse jail after skipping her previous court date, getting a warrant put out for her arrest and then getting picked up by the Los Angeles Police Department, according to court and custody records.
She made an appearance Monday morning at the Van Nuys Courthouse in connection to a separate case, which she picked up after LAPD officers arrested her in December on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm. That complaint also said the charges were made after she had been released on her own recognizance, referring to the SCV case.
The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office did not return a request for information Friday regarding an update on the previous plea discussion.
SCV Sheriff’s Station deputies arrested Delatorre on suspicion of serial-theft charges, under a relatively new set of voter-approved laws intended to target such crimes against commercial and residential targets.
The detective wrote in a request for a search of a Canyon Country home on Soledad Canyon Road that investigators had tied Delatorre’s vehicle to a Toyota SUV they saw used in multiple crimes, based on witnesses and surveillance footage.
Detectives reported recovering evidence they said was linked to the thefts on Delatorre’s property.
In her SCV case last year, Judge Robert Sanchez DuFour dismissed the organized retail grand theft charge and an allegation of criminal threats, and 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.
Delatorre then skipped out on her October court date that was intended for Delatorre to answer the charges.
She was then re-arrested by the LAPD in May and taken into custody in connection with her other outstanding charges.
She’s now due back at court in the San Fernando Courthouse in August. The outcome of her Van Nuys charges was not immediately available Monday. She’s currently being held in lieu of $300,000 bail at the Century Regional Detention Center, a women’s jail in Lynwood.
Delatorre had a codefendant, Nathaniel Rivas, who also skipped his previous court date and still has an outstanding arrest warrant as of this story’s publication.
