El Paso Police investigation into alleged 5 teen crime spree turned over to county attorney

The El Paso Police Department has concluded its investigation into five El Paso teens accused of a string of robberies that ended with a high speed chase into New Mexico.

It was one of the most talked-about stories of the year.

The five teens, four boys and a girl, allegedly robbed four business across the Sun City before leading police on a high speed chase into Otero County in southern New Mexico, where they were caught and arrested.

Two of the teens have already entered pleas in a New Mexico court. ABC-7 is learning their cases may now be moving forward in El Paso County as well.

In New Mexico, 15-year-old Edwin Rodriguez pleaded no contest to charges that included aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon. Fourteen-year-old Jaquil Webb pleaded guilty to other charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The three other teens all face charges related to the chase. They are 15-year-old Evelyn Brown, 14-year-old Antonio Brown, and 14-year-old Isaiah Garcia.

Rodriguez is set to be sentenced in Otero County Tuesday, with sentencing or evaluations pending for the other teens. But that’s not the end of their legal process.

Whatever their punishments end up being in New Mexico, the teens will most likely each end up back in El Paso to face other accusations. A police spokesman said the Pebble Hills, Central and Northeast Regional Commands all had investigations into the alleged armed robberies that have all now been turned over to the El Paso County Attorney’s Office, which in Texas is charged with prosecuting offenses by juveniles.

Now, the county attorney will decide exactly what they’ll be charged with.

“Once the case is received the county attorney’s office, generally speaking, processes cases,” said Patsy Lopez, trial team chief for the county attorney. “We screen them within a one- to two-week period if at all possible. And certainly cases move along much more quickly in the juvenile system than they do in the adult system.”

Lopez said the office is legally prevented from releasing any juvenile record details, and that includes trial stages and hearing dates.

But as soon as the teens are through with the New Mexico legal process, they will face warrants that have already been filed to bring them back to El Paso. The charges they’ll face will depend on the severity and impact of their alleged crimes, which could end up at a more serious level of prosecution if necessary.

“Anything really that involves violence against another individual,” Lopez said. “So, robbery, aggravated robbery, aggravated assaults, whether it’s serious bodily injury or by deadly weapon, murder. Anything really of a felony offense that is violent in nature.”

One big difference in how they’ll be dealt with in Texas is how the system is set up. Texas’ juvenile justice system is focused on rehabilitation and release. The focus will be on reforming and returning the teens to society, unless it’s determined that there’s no hope that can happen. And the prosecution would have to specifically argue and prove that the teens are a danger to themselves and the community to be kept in confinement. Any sentence determined in Texas would then be worked out and put into place along with their punishments in New Mexico.