Stolen scooter leads to more trouble

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by Ken Kiunke , June 25, 2015

A woman in Guerneville must have thought it was her lucky day. While in the Safeway Market parking lot, she spotted her stolen motor scooter in the back of a U-Haul pickup truck.

It was the morning of Saturday, June 20 when she spotted the scooter. Rather than just take it back, she contacted the Sheriff’s office at about 10:45 am to tell them what she had found, and waited by the truck for them to arrive. However, the driver of the truck, a 31-year-old woman, finished her business and was ready to leave. The scooter owner confronted the woman, later identified as Kristy Jerrilynn Chavez of San Jose, about the scooter in the truck. Ms. Chavez was not interested in discussing the finer points of who owned what, and quickly got into the truck and peeled out of the parking lot.

Kristy Chavez has a long history with law enforcement, and it’s no surprise that she was far from her home in San Jose. Records show that in the years between 2005 and 2008 she was living in the East Bay area town of Newark. In April of 2005 after just turning 21, she was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft, possession of stolen property, passing a bad check, and being under the influence of a controlled substance. She was arrested several more times over the next three years for being under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia, burglary, and petty theft with a prior, along with parole violations.

Many years later, in February of this year, she was arrested by police in San Pablo at the San Pablo Town Center Jack-In-The-Box, and charged with possession and transportation of a controlled substance and marijuana for sale. She also had an unspecified outstanding warrant when they took her into custody at 7:36 am. She was living at her current home in San Jose at the time. A few days later, on February 13, she and a friend, Somone Steinhardt, a 25-year-old woman from Menlo Park, were arrested at about 8:30 pm by Concord Police at the Concord Inn & Suites hotel on Monument Boulevard. They were both charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance. (Steinhardt has a very extensive record of arrests over the past year, including several counts of vehicle theft, burglary, and drug offenses.)

Then in March of this year, while temporarily living at the San Leandro Salels Mobile Home Park on Lewelling Boulevard, she and another woman, Shanna Leslie Orona, 42 of Hayward, were arrested at Chavez’s home and charged with burglary, possessing counterfeit ATM or access cards, identity theft, and drug possession. Orona was also charged with resisting arrest, evading with disregard for safety, and giving false information to an officer. Like Chavez’s other friend Steinhardt, Ms. Orona has an extensive history of prior arrests on identity theft, burglary, and drug charges.

Chavez didn’t get far in her escape. She crashed at this corner, injuring a pedestrian.

Kristy Chavez’s history may have a lot to do with why she was so eager to get out of the Safeway parking lot. As she was leaving, according to the Sonoma Sheriff’s Office, a deputy was on his way, responding to the call. As he approached the Safeway on First Street, from the east side of the parking lot, he saw the U-Haul pickup speeding out in the opposite direction, down the narrow road towards Guerneville Plaza and the heart of downtown. The deputy immediately turned around, engaged his lights and siren, and followed the truck. Chavez didn’t get far, and as First turns onto Armstrong Woods Road and into River Road, she lost control and crashed the truck.

The wreck of the U-Haul truck impacted a car parked on the street, pushing that car up the curb and into a person on the sidewalk, who was then pinned between that car and another. The pursuing deputy, another responding deputy, and a number of people in the area worked together to move the cars and free the injured bystander, who was soon taken by ambulance to a local hospital. The injuries were described as non-life threatening.

Kristy Chavez was not injured in the wreck, and was arrested for possession of stolen property, felony evading causing injury, and felony parole violations. She was booked into the Sonoma County Jail and held without bail.