THREE men — Luwan Angui Reyes, Michael Itibus Olaitiman Jr., and Michael Borja Evangelista — are accused of stealing eight rolls of copper wire from a construction site and selling them at two recycling shops for a total of $624.
Reyes, 26, Olaitiman, 29, and Evangelista, 36, were separately charged with burglary and theft.
Evangelista appeared for a bail hearing on Monday before Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho who imposed a $20,000 cash bail.
At the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Steve Kessel appeared for the government while the court appointed attorney Keith Chambers to represent Evangelista.
After the hearing, Evangelista was remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections and ordered to return to court for a preliminary hearing on May 31, at 10 a.m., and for an arraignment on June 5, at 9 a.m.
At a bail modification hearing on May 17, Olaitiman was released to a third-party custodian and placed under house arrest. Represented by attorney Mark Scoggins, Olaitiman waived the preliminary hearing.
Reyes was remanded to the custody of Corrections after a bail hearing on May 15. He was represented by Assistant Public Defender Tyler Scott. Reyes’s cash bail was also set at $20,000.
According to the complaint against the three men, Olaitiman used his vehicle to drive Reyes and Evangelista to a hotel under construction beside the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio on May 10.
The three entered through an opening in the fence of the construction site and stole rolls of copper wire inside a 40-foot container, the complaint stated. One of them used a bolt cutter to cut the master padlock of the container, the complaint added.
After selling five rolls of copper wire for $330 at a recycling shop, the three later came back a second time to the construction site and took three more rolls of copper wire, which they sold for $294 to a different recycling shop on the same day, the complaint stated.
