A local teen was arrested Tuesday night stemming from allegations she was an accomplice to at least one of three armed robberies committed over the course of two days in December.
Jasmine Coronado Mae Galo, 19, who is reportedly homeless, was taken into custody shortly after 7:30 p.m. at a residence on Bellview Street she has previously listed as her address, and served with a felony warrant for aggravated robbery, punishable by up to life in prison, and a misdemeanor warrant for theft of property, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Galo, who lists no prior felony history, was being held on a $77,550 bond and was set to appear Wednesday in Garland County District Court. According to court records, she pleaded guilty in district court on Feb. 4, 2021, to misdemeanor counts of theft of property, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and was sentenced to one year of supervised probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Dec. 21, at 4:10 a.m., Hot Springs police responded to an aggravated robbery at E-Z Mart, 505 Summer St., during which a Hispanic male wearing all black clothing used a semi-automatic pistol to rob the clerk of an undisclosed amount of money.
At 4:29 a.m., officers received a call of a second robbery at Waffle House, 2017 Central Ave., where a man matching the description from the E-Z Mart robbery used a gun to rob employees of an undisclosed amount of money.
The next day, Dec. 22, at 6:22 p.m., officers responded to a third robbery at Dollar General, 617 Albert Pike Road, where witnesses provided a description of the robber that matched the person from the previous two robberies.
The suspect fled into the woods behind Dollar General after committing the robbery and a police K-9 was able to track his trail to a residence in the 100 block of Main Street, Sgt. Scott Lampinen previously told The Sentinel-Record.
Officers set up a perimeter around the area and obtained and executed a search warrant for the residence. While they were able to collect some evidence, the suspect was not located at that time, Lampinen said.
The affidavit notes a black and gray SCCY 9-mm handgun was located following a search by the K-9.
Detective Phillip De Foor reviewed the videos from E-Z Mart and Dollar General and noted the suspect was wearing the same clothing in both incidents. The only difference was that in the E-Z Mart robbery, the suspect was also wearing glasses and in the Dollar General robbery was also wearing a "brightly colored belt."
De Foor noted the firearm recovered matched the one seen in the videos and the suspect in the videos allegedly matched the description of a local man, Simon Sertuche, 22, who was known by HSPD officers.
A search warrant for Sertuche's AT&T phone records was obtained and location data examined. The data showed Sertuche was in the area of E-Z Mart at the time of the robbery and then moved to the area of Waffle House at the time of that robbery. His phone also pinged in the area of Dollar General and "stayed in the area briefly" at the time of that robbery and left immediately afterward.
On Jan. 28, Sertuche was arrested by police on unrelated misdemeanor warrants for first-degree criminal mischief, terroristic threatening and failure to appear. His phone, which was in his possession, was seized and a search warrant obtained for the data it contained.
In the data, De Foor reportedly found multiple photos of Sertuche in the weeks leading up to and after the three robberies, wearing clothing that allegedly matched the clothing seen in each of the robberies.
Sertuche was also allegedly wearing glasses in some of the photos that matched the glasses seen in the E-Z Mart robbery and wearing a brightly colored belt in one photo matching the one seen in the Dollar General robbery.
Multiple photos and videos reportedly showed Sertuche in possession of a firearm that matched the one used in the robberies, the affidavit states.
One video, which was time-stamped one hour and 21 minutes after the Dollar General robbery, allegedly shows Galo in the driver's seat of a car "holding a large amount of U.S. currency in various denominations."
She handed the money to Sertuche, who laid it on the floor of the passenger seat where his shoes were clearly visible. The shoes reportedly matched the ones seen in all the robberies.
A text overlay on another copy of the video reportedly states, "Got an A+ @ Hittin Licks & Pullin Robberies!"
Sertuche was extradited on Feb. 23 to Louisiana on warrants for felony attempted illegal use of a weapon and has not been brought back to Hot Springs yet. A warrant for Galo's arrest was issued on March 30.
A photo taken from security video shows a male suspect who robbed the E-Z Mart, 505 Summer St., on Dec. 21 and is believed to have committed two other armed robberies. Photo courtesy of the Hot Springs Police Department