|
|
|
April 6, 2000
Charges brought in Holiday Inn robberyNEW ULM -- A St. James man, Reymundo Mata, 31, 921 8th Ave. N., has been charged in Brown County District Court with first degree aggravated robbery in connection to an armed robbery Dec. 6, 1999, at the Holiday Inn in New Ulm. Mata has also been charged in Waseca and Nicollet counties in connection to three other robberies in North Mankato and Waseca. Pedro Maldonado was also participated in the robbery, according to the criminal complaint. However, he has accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in the first degree in Nicollet and Waseca counties. Maldonado will be sentenced on April 18, in Waseca County. Mata will be sentenced on May 23, 2000 in Waseca County. The maximum sentence for first degree aggravated robbery, a felony, is 20 years in jail and/or a $35,000 fine. According to law enforcement documents, at 1:18 a.m. on Dec. 6, 1999, the New Ulm Police Department received a call reporting an armed robbery at the Holiday Inn. Two men dressed in blue coveralls, with one wearing a Halloween mask similar to the face of a president and the other wearing a ski mask, entered the front lobby at the Holiday Inn. One of the men was carrying a handgun. During the robbery, the men threatened employees with the gun. One of the suspects took money from the cash drawer, and employees were ordered to open the safe. A cash tray was removed from the safe and placed in a gym bag. The amount taken in the robbery was $800. A former girlfriend of Mata's gave a statement on March 9 to the Waseca police stating that she had knowledge of the armed robberies in New Ulm, North Mankato and Waseca. The woman said Mata told her to get rid of items in a garbarge can at his residence, according to the complaint. Those items included a handgun, a black wig and a dark pair of coveralls.
|