ENCINITAS — Three teenagers were arrested in connection with a shoe sale turned armed robbery earlier this month in the Encinitas neighborhood of Cardiff by the Sea.
After communicating via social media regarding the sale of several pairs of shoes, a male victim met with two 16-year-old suspects, a boy and a girl, at approximately 5 p.m. on Sept. 14 in the Cardiff by the Sea Apartments parking lot in the 2100 block of Carol View Drive, according to Sgt. Heather Bruton of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
After handing the suspects each a box of shoes, a third man approached the group, removed a gun from his pants and pointed it at the victim. The victim ran to his vehicle and got into the driver’s seat, and the male and female suspects fled with the victim’s shoes.
The incident was captured on the victim’s Tesla cameras mounted at various locations on the vehicle.
Detectives from the North Coastal Sheriff’s Station used the video footage from the vehicle’s cameras to identify, locate and arrest the two juvenile suspects. Both were booked into a juvenile detention facility on robbery charges.
According to law enforcement, the male suspect was wearing a pair of shoes stolen during the robbery at the time of his arrest.
Detectives later identified the third suspect with a gun as Jesus Manuel Quinonez, 18, who was also named as a suspect in a similar robbery of shoes on Sept. 11 in San Marcos.
SWAT teams for the Carlsbad and Escondido police departments served a search warrant on Sept. 20 at Quinonez’s home in Carlsbad and arrested him for both robberies.
Carlsbad police have also identified Quinonez as a suspect in an Aug. 15 stabbing in Carlsbad.
During the search of his home, law enforcement found clothing Quinonez wore during the Encinitas robbery, shoes stolen during the San Marcos robbery, and evidence related to the Carlsbad stabbing.
Quinonez is currently in custody for robbery, possession of stolen property, assault with a deadly weapon and participating in a street gang. His bail is now set at $300,000.
Check out The Coast News’ Weekly Crime Reports and Daily Arrest Logs for up-to-the-minute arrest reports in North County. Read more local crime news here. Also, visit the San Diego County Sheriff’s website for more information about arrests, cold cases and active alerts.Â
