Photo: Talevi’s Wine and Spirits
SANTA BARBARA — Los Angeles residents 26-year-old Samuel Saenz-Cisneros and 29-year-old Miriam Martinez may not have had any idea just how quickly Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies on burglary suppression patrol would respond to a commercial break-in at a local area liquor store in the pre-dawn hours of March 6th.
Miriam Martinez
But, as reported by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, because of a recent rash of “several early morning commercial burglaries in recent weeks” in the area just north of the Santa Barbara City limits, “a Sheriff’s K-9 team was conducting patrols in the area” at the same time Saenz-Cisneros and Martinez were breaking into the Talevi’s Wine and Spirits retail store where “the door had been shattered and forced open.”
That violent break-in activated a burglar alarm which reported directly to the Santa Barbara County Public Safety Dispatch Center. No more than 90 seconds later, the cops arrived with an eager K-9 who “encountered a male subject running away from the front door of the business.” That subject was Saenz-Cisneros, and as he was taken into custody, Martinez was located “sitting in a vehicle parked nearby,” whereupon she was herself detained.
The immediately ensuing investigation indicated that “a third suspect” had taken off on foot, escaping into a nearby creek running under several of the area’s main thoroughfares. Additional SBSD units arrived on scene and conducted a 45-minute search that included “an emergency notification” broadcast to area residents. In spite of a rigorous search by the Sheriff’s K-9 team, the third suspect remains at large.
Cisneros
Saenz-Cisneros and Martinez were transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where they were booked on charges of burglary and criminal conspiracy, with his bail set at $20,000, while Martinez—wanted on a prior arrest warrant—remains in custody and held without bail.
Photos: Santa Barbara County Jail Booking, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department
