San Diego man, Gabriel Dean Watters, plans to request a reduction in his $1 million bail after being charged with involvement in a luxury vehicle theft and resale scheme. Watters pleaded not guilty to multiple counts, and a bail review hearing is scheduled for December 8. Editor reported
A San Diego man, Gabriel Dean Watters, 47, has been arrested and charged in connection with a series of luxury vehicle thefts. Watters is one of two suspects involved in the scheme, which involved stealing and reselling high-end cars. He was apprehended at San Diego International Airport on Monday. Watters pleaded not guilty to four counts each of embezzlement, auto theft, and receiving stolen property during his court appearance on Thursday. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel has scheduled a bail review hearing for December 8 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta. The defendant’s attorney will argue for a reduced bond, as Watters is currently being held on $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center.
Watters’ alleged accomplice, Kendall Jamison Clark, 25, of Murrieta, pleaded not guilty to over two dozen theft-related felony counts in October. Clark is free on a $250,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court again on December 14.
According to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, Watters was identified as an alleged co-conspirator during further investigation by the county’s Auto-Theft Interdiction Detail, a multi-agency task force. Prosecutors claim that Clark engaged multiple owners of luxury vehicles in the county, who rented the expensive cars to him but never saw them again. When the owners tried to report the vehicles as stolen, they discovered that their names had been removed from the titles. The investigation revealed that Watters was purchasing the stolen cars from Clark at significantly lower prices than their actual value. Watters would meet Clark at various locations in Riverside County, pay him for a group of cars, and then transport the cars to other locations, including Mexico, where he would attempt to sell them again.
Among the stolen vehicles were a 2021 Lamborghini Aventador, a 2022 Urus, a 2021 Porsche Boxter, and a 2022 Tesla Model Y. The task force became aware of the alleged scheme in September and subsequently arrested Clark several weeks later. Court records show that Clark has prior convictions for statutory rape and lewd acts, while Watters has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.
Source: City News Service
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