Cory Fletcher and Karinna Cortez
Ventura County – It was well after midnight on March 31st when a burglar alarm alerted Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Moorpark Police Department patrol deputies to the presence of intruders inside Moorpark’s Mesa Verde Middle School.
When deputies rolled up at 2:40 a.m., they spotted 19-year-old Karinna Cortez hot-footing it away from the campus in the dark.
Police display stolen items
According to Moorpark Investigator Det. Ken Truitt, Cortez was promptly taken into custody and detained pending the on-site investigation into the circumstances that set off the burglar alarm.
It was quickly determined that there were “two additional suspects” involved in the caper, and that “over 100 iPad tablets were moved and staged in a place ready to be stolen,” before the cops arrived on the scene.
It wasn’t long before Cory Fletcher, a 44-year-old resident of Oxnard, was identified “as another suspect in the burglary,” which led to the issuance of multiple search warrants at residences in both Oxnard and Chatsworth.
Pursuant to those searches, Truitt reported to the media that detectives discovered purloined booty that included “150 iPad tablets, several laptop and desktop computers, stolen checks, and other electronic equipment,” all of which had been stolen from various schools and residences throughout southern Ventura County in a veritable crime spree.
Located at his residence during the service of the search warrant, Fletcher was taken into custody without incident.
Both Fletcher—the owner of a computer repair and service company in Westlake Viollage—and Cortez were transported to Ventura County Jail, where they were booked on multiple charges of burglary and grand theft.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department
