Four Los Angeles residents are currently in custody in connection with over 2-dozen home-invasion burglaries across Southern California. The suspects were arrested at different times, beginning in April and carrying on through May. The first to be arrested was Oussama Mimouni, who was taken into custody by the LAPD on April 23rd. Michael Bishop and Joy Williams were arrested in Camarillo on May 6th, and Rodrick Brumfeld was arrested in Lancaster on May 15th.
Bail for Brumfeld, Mimouni and Williams was set at $1 million, while Michael Bishop’s bail was set at 1,540,000. All four suspects are wanted in connection with over 2-dozen home-invasion burglaries in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, as well as some areas of Nevada.
According to reports, the method that the suspects allegedly used to target houses was to drive around a neighborhood and look for residences which appeared to have nobody home. One of the suspects would then look up the address in the white pages, call the home, and if nobody answered, another suspect would approach the home and knock on the door. If there was no answer again, the suspects would break into the home and burglarize it. Their methods of assuring nobody was home likely contributed to their ability to burglarize so many homes before being caught.
Penal Code 459 PC covers California’s burglary laws, and can be divided into two types: residential burglary (first-degree) and commercial burglary (second-degree). Since the four suspects only broke into homes, it is likely they will face several charges of first-degree burglary; a crime which is always prosecuted as a felony. Convictions of first-degree burglary include up to 1-year in county jail, or 2 to 6-years in California state prison and a maximum fine of $10,000. Additionally, convictions of first-degree burglary count as a strike under California’s Three Strikes Law.
Since there were multiple suspects in the crimes, some or all of them may also face conspiracy charges.
