ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is set to deport a co-defendant in the case involving four South American men facing felony charges in connection with the Nov. 10-11 overnight burglary of an Aspen store that sells luxury watches and jewelry.
Defendant Paolo Zapata-Canete was scheduled on Monday to be arraigned in Pitkin County District Court on three felony counts of conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary, but the hearing was shelved after the prosecution informed the court about ICE’s deportation plans for Zapata-Canete, whose 45th birthday is today.
Deputy District Attorney James Stone, on his last day in the Aspen office (he will remain a prosecutor in the 9th Judicial District), said ICE had notified local authorities about its plans to deport Zapata-Canate to his home country of Chile. Deportation is set for Wednesday, he said.
“He is scheduled to be removed from the country in two days’ time, on March 19, 2025,” Stone said. “We received a notification from ICE in Denver and they advised to ‘please come pick him up, or he will be deported.’ It has been my request that the federal government go through with what the federal government is deciding to do, and the state government — aka the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office — is not getting in the way.”
Pitkin County District Judge Laura Makar was in line with the prosecution’s position.
“I do not think it makes sense for us to set another date in this case but I’m open to thoughts from counsel,” Makar said.
There were no protests in the hearing, including from Carbondale attorney Kathy Goudy, who was appointed by the court to represent Zapata-Canete.
“I have no objection to the state’s position, Your Honor,” she said.
Responding to Makar’s question about whether the DA’s Office would be taking further action in the Zapato-Canate case, Stone said it was unlikely.
“Honestly, right now, I don’t,” he said. “To get to the hypothetical, to the extent that Mr. Zapato-Canate illegally entered the country again allegedly, this case would remain open.”
Zapata-Canete is one of four co-defendants arrested and charged over the overnight burglary of downtown boutique Avi & Co. on East Cooper Avenue. Authorities say that none of them were in the United States legally when they were arrested, less than one week after Donald Trump was elected president on a platform that included an aggressive policy toward deporting immigrants who are here illegally and charged with crimes.
Authorities believe Zapata-Canete conspired with four others, one of them unknown and unarrested, when they tunneled their way into the store using blowtorches, saws, drills, hammers, crowbars and other tools, according to an arrest warrant affidavit from the Aspen Police Department.
Though the burglars entered the business, they did not take its most valuable inventory contained in the backroom vault. They also damaged adjacent businesses in their alleged burglary mission, authorities alleged.
Getting the suspects’ actual identities has proven challenging, though Stone said at a Dec. 16 hearing Zapata-Canete was the only co-defendant honest about his identity with authorities.
Zapata-Canete posted a $5,000 bond two days after Makar reduced it Dec. 16 from the $25,000 cash-only amount he had been held on since he was booked. After bailing out of Pitkin County Jail, he waived extradition to ICE on Dec. 19. Since then, Zapata-Canete has been detained on an immigration hold in a detention processing facility in Aurora, according to ICE web records.
Zapata-Canete is believed to have played a less significant role in the burglary than the other suspects; he is charged with two class 5 felony counts and one class 6 counts of conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary. He also is wanted in Roanoke County, Virginia, for credit-card theft, according to the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Department website.
None of the defendants have entered a plea to the charges in the Aspen burglary. All four co-defendants told authorities that they were visiting the U.S., according to court documents.
Also in ICE custody is co-defendant Luis Baeza-Soto, 44, of Chile. He is charged in Pitkin County District Court with three felony charges of conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary and a fourth felony, attempt to influence a public servant. Like Zapata-Canete, Baeza-Soto also was detained by ICE after he was released from county jail after paying a bond lowered from its original $25,000 amount. He also is in the Aurora facility.
The two other co-defendants remain in the county jail in Aspen on cash-only bonds of $100,000.
Tomas Bravo-Toro, 34, of Peru, is charged with three felony counts of second-degree burglary and single felony counts of criminal attempt to commit theft, attempt to influence a public servant and criminal mischief.
Agustin Ramirez-Vidal is charged with two class 4 felony counts for second-degree burglary; one relates to Avi & Co., the other to Forre Fine Art Contemporary Gallery. He faces a class 5 felony, also for burglary, for breaking through the restaurant Wayan to get into Avi & Co.
Authorities say Ramirez-Vidal inspected the building a day earlier wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses with a hidden camera, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He also had a lockpicking key used for “committing or facilitating the commission of an offense involving forcible entry into premises or theft,” according to charging documents filed by Stone.
>rosecutors have said that the actual names of some of the co-defendants differ from the identities presented in charging documents.