Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman retained the $5,000 original bail he imposed on Mohammad Miah, 35, citing his previous arrests and cases.
Wiseman required the defendant’s wife, Tahira S. Miah, 23, to post a $200 cash bail, or 10 percent of $2,000, and the remaining $1,800 in unsecured or appearance bond.
Wiseman lowered the original $5,000 cash bail set for Mrs. Miah.
The couple is being held on the charge of theft of vehicle.
Assistant Attorney General Brian D. Gallager is the prosecutor while the two defendants are being represented by attorneys Edward Arriola and Matthew Gregory.
The defendants were remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections after their initial court appearance yesterday afternoon.
The Attorney General’s Office earlier filed separate charges of receiving stolen property, theft of vehicle, and tampering with vehicle against Mohammad Miah.
Detective Jonathan Decena said Chai Jin Liu reported the theft of her Nissan Frontier pick-up truck, with license plate ACM 593, at her residence in San Antonio at about 5 a.m. on June 20, 2010.
A witness told police that prior to the incident, a sky blue pick-up truck was parked outside their barracks, and “a short Bangladeshi man” exited its passenger side.
This man made his way to the victim’s Nissan Frontier, and drove it off, police said.
The victim bought her Nissan Frontier from Mohammed Delowar Hossain who was closely associated with another Bangladeshi national known as as “Miah.”
Follow-up investigation by Detective Kevin Maratita confirmed that “Miah” was Mohammad Miah.
The victim said she saw her Nissan Frontier on the road being operated by Tahira Miah, but with a different license plate: ACO 313.
On July 23, 2010, Traffic Investigator Norris Kwon interviewed Mrs. Miah at the Criminal Investigation Bureau, and said she admitted her involvement in the stolen vehicle case.
In her signed statement to police, Mrs. Miah confessed that she was the one who transported her husband to Liu’s residence.
Mrs. “Miah planned the entire thing after she obtained an extra set of keys for Liu’s Frontier from…[Hossain’s] wife. Tahira claim[ed] she did not want the vehicle to be registered under her name, but [her husband] would not listen to her,” Decena said.
On July 26, 2010, Decena interviewed Hossain at the police station. Hossain told Decena that he sold a Toyota Tercel to Mohammad Miah but he was “tricked” by the defendant.
Hossain said Mohammad Miah used the bill of sale for Liu’s Nissan Frontier instead of the Toyota Tercel.
Further investigation revealed that a day after Liu’s Frontier was stolen, Tahira Miah submitted to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles a notarized affidavit, claiming she lost her license plate ACM 593, which was then replaced by the BMV with a new one: ACO 313.
“The couple had been using the [Nissan Frontier] truck since then,” Decena said.
