Youth Denies Role in Border Robberies
A 17-year-old arrested last week on suspicion of robbing undocumented immigrants near the border denied the allegations at a hearing Wednesday in Juvenile Court.
Judge Napoleon A. Jones Jr. ordered Jason MacAllister to remain in custody pending further court proceedings. Trial is scheduled Sept. 25.
“The district attorney has petitioned the court to try him as an adult because of the seriousness of the offense and his age,” said Carlos Armour, a deputy district attorney and chief of that office’s juvenile division.
MacAllister and three adult males were arrested by San Diego police and U.S. Border Patrol agents just north of the U.S.-Mexico border last Thursday. Eleven people, 10 of them illegal aliens, told officials they were robbed by four males with weapons.
MacAllister’s attorney, Leif Tessem, denied the charges against his client: eight counts of robbery and three counts of attempted robbery.
The three other suspects have already pleaded not guilty in Municipal Court to seven counts of armed robbery and four counts of attempted robbery. They are being held in County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each.
The three are William Eugene Barnes, 24; Donald Tyrone Young, 22, and Ruben Augustine Saucedo, 20. A preliminary hearing has been set for Sept. 12.
All four suspects are students at the San Diego Job Corps Center on Iris Avenue in Imperial Beach.
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