Arrest made in home invasion robbery

ADELANTO — Fingerprints led to an arrest over the weekend in a month-old home invasion robbery.

A 911 call Aug. 19 alerted deputies to a disturbance in the caller’s neighborhood. The victim, whose name has not been released,  reported that the suspects knocked on his door, asking to buy drugs.

When they were told the occupant did not sell drugs, the suspects reportedly brandished handguns and entered the apartment. The suspects were startled when a friend came to the residence and knocked on the door. All three suspects fled through a back window, taking two cell phones belonging to the victim.

“We classified it as a home invasion robbery,” said Staci Johnson, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s official. On Sunday, sheriff’s deputies made a connection.

Deputy Robert Theiss had lifted fingerprints at the residence in the 11000 block of White Avenue. They came back to Alphonso Martin, 18, of Adelanto.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for Martin’s residence, also in Adelanto.

Deputies, along with assistance of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Crime Impact Team, presented the warrant at 10:32 a.m. on Sunday. Martin, who is a documented gang member, was arrested without incident and taken to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

Investigators are trying to determine the identity of the two other suspects, both of whom were described as black males in their late teens or early 20s, weighing about 150 pounds each.

Adelanto is a high desert Southern California city 20 miles east of San Bernardino.