By Victoria Lembesis
SACRAMENTO – Multiple defense lawyers tried to convince a Sacramento County Superior Court judge in a preliminary hearing late last week that their defendants—Elliot Anthony Edwards Northley, Andrew Elles and Ebijon Beer—should not have been arrested for allegedly stealing items from a Walmart.
The judge disagreed, and now all three suspects are set for trial.
Defense Attorney Audrey Kyan argued there was a lack of probable cause on the arrest of Northley, and the attorney for Elles stated that there was also no reasonable suspicion to detain her client.
Police were called to a Folsom Walmart on March 24 earlier this year to respond to three subjects who allegedly had stolen from the store earlier that day and were trying to steal yet again.
Witness Curtis Perkins, an asset protection associate for Folsom Walmart, claimed he observed defendants enter and exit Walmart at least two times. After noticing the defendants stealing 
merchandise from the store, Perkins decided to call police for backup.
Officer Joseph Smith testified that when he arrived, he located the vehicle described in the dispatch call and pulled up behind it. He made eye contact with a female in the vehicle, who also matched the dispatch description.
According to Officer Smith, once defendant Beer noticed the officer, he began to walk back into the Walmart, and then met up with defendant Northley who matched the description of one of the suspects. The officer went inside the store and requested the two suspects leave the store in order for them to talk. Northley became angry and started to yell at Officer Smith.
Defense attorney Kyan introduced a surveillance video from a camera at the front entrance of the Folsom Wamart that showed Officer Smith detaining Northley within 10 seconds of exiting his patrol vehicle. She asserted that the video proves that the officer did not take enough time to identify the suspect before detaining him.
Another witness, Officer Bryce Bandilla of the Sacramento Police Dept., testified that he reviewed surveillance footage of defendants carrying items to their vehicle. He also testified that defendant Elles was seen driving the vehicle to the Walmart location in the surveillance video. Beer was noted to have been seen carrying a bag to the vehicle three or four times with the other two defendants.
He also stated that vehicle plates and suspect description matched information from dispatchers. When questioned, defendant Beer stated that they had items from other Walmart stores in their vehicle.
Officer Bandilla searched Beer’s vehicle, in which he found stolen merchandise from the Folsom Walmart store.
Defense attorney (first name unintelligible on Zoom) Munoz asserted that her client, Defendant Elles was ”an innocent bystander that got roped into the situation.”
Deputy District Attorney Toni Linarez made it clear that Officer Smith did have probable cause to detain the defendants because of reasonable suspicion, due to their matching dispatch descriptions and proximity to the vehicle connected to the case, and all three defendants were the only people in the area who matched the dispatch description.
Judge Gerrit W. Wood ruled that the case should move forward, noting, “The court does believe that the totality of the circumstances supports that the detention of the three defendants is reasonable and the motions of the defense are denied.”
Trial readiness conference is set for Nov. 12.
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