Two men have pleaded guilty to robbing young people of their cell phones in Chula Vista. One man also pleaded guilty to a series of robberies at donut shops in 2015.
Nicholas Noel Solorio, 23, of Chula Vista, and his cousin, Malaefono Junior Sula, 32, will be sentenced Sept. 22 by Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sontag.
Solorio faces up to 13 years and four months in state prison while Sula could get a maximum term of seven years and eight months, said Deputy District Attorney Lucille Yturralde.
Solorio pleaded guilty to five robbery and attempted robberies of donut shops in November 2015 in Chula Vista that he committed by himself.
The cell phone theft series started Nov. 28, 2016 and ended on Dec. 27. Once Solorio was fingerprinted by Chula Vista Police, they realized his prints matched the ones taken from three donut shop robberies in Chula Vista.
Solorio and Sula held up three 16-year-old boys, a 17-year-old girl, and a 21-year-old woman in separate incidents in which the only thing taken was their cell phones.
The stolen cell phones were then sold to a Chula Vista business in which Solorio’s photo and identification were taken, according to court records.
The first incident occurred Nov. 28 when a 21-year-old woman said two men in a red vehicle pulled up next to her and pretended to ask for directions to Chula Vista High School. She started to show one man directions on her phone when he grabbed it and fled.
On Dec. 1, a 16-year-old girl told police that two men in a red Jeep Cherokee pulled up next to her on Tobias Drive and stole her I-phone 6 after one man threatened to shoot her. The next day a 16-year-old boy told police a man displayed a 4-inch folding knife and took his phone on Fifth Avenue.
Another 16-year-old boy reported that a man threatened to shoot him before he surrendered his cell phone. Another 16-year-old boy said a man tried to take his phone on Dec. 27 at Twin Oaks and I Street.
Chula Vista Police located the red Jeep and arrested Solorio who was found hiding in the back yard of a house where he had been staying.
Solorio and Sula remain in jail on $350,00 and $200,000 bail respectfully.
