A July 14 trial date has been set for two men suspected of robbing young people of their cell phones in Chula Vista.
One man, Nicholas Noel Solorio, 23, of Chula Vista, is also charged with five robbery and attempted robberies of donut shops that were committed in Nov., 2015.
Solorio and his cousin, Malaefono Junior Sula, 31, are charged in the cell phone theft series that 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 are alleged to 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 were 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.
Solorio is accused of committing five robbery and attempted robberies at Sunny’s Donuts and Corner Donuts by himself in November 2015.
Solorio and Sula have pleaded not guilty and remain in jail $350,00 and $200,000 bail respectively.
