KINGMAN, Ariz. – A Mesa resident accused in the attempted theft of about $500,000 worth of high-end tennis shoes from a cargo container along the railroad tracks in Yucca has been placed on probation with no further jail time. Angel Ochoa, 21, was sentenced Oct. 6 by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle.
Carlisle inherited the case when Judge Billy Sipe recused himself after he rejected a similar plea. Sipe axed the proposed plea deal that restricted punishment to probation and no more than a year in county jail.
Sipe said Ochoa deserved more confinement for being involved in a transnational criminal syndicate stealing expensive merchandise from railroad train cargo containers in southwest states for several years.
Defense attorney Daniel Christian said Ochoa was not a member of any syndicate.
Deputy Mohave County attorney James Schoppmann confirmed investigators were unable to connect the defendant to a crime ring.
Schoppmann told the court that he met with railroad police and a Yavapai County-based task force investigating the train cargo robberies. He said the consensus is that the syndicate preys upon the vulnerabilities of young men needing money to purchase their lower levels of involvement.
Schoppmann said the task force is supporting convictions of lower-tiered offenders to build a data base for an investigative tool to connect dots in search of criminals higher up the chain in the organization.
“I’m just asking for short probation,” Ochoa told Judge Carlisle. “My parents are elderly and very ill and I want to be with them.”
Carlisle said he understood why Judge Sipe rejected a previous plea agreement. And he said he didn’t understand why the state didn’t seek a class 2 felony conviction since the value of the merchandise targeted for theft well exceeded the mandatory prison threshold of $100,000.
Ochoa was instead convicted of a class 4 felony burglary offense. Carlisle placed him on probation for three years and ordered no further incarceration beyond 104 days already spent in custody.
