Royal man gets community service

EPHRATA - A Royal City man was ordered to complete 80 community service hours for selling a stolen motorcycle in Grant County Superior Court.

Candelario Rojas, 23, was originally charged with second-degree trafficking in stolen property (reckless), but as part of a plea deal, he admitted guilt to the amended charge of second-degree possession of stolen property.

Deputy prosecutor Mark Laiminger told the court the basis for the plea bargain was that Rojas was essentially cooperative in the case and only had one prior criminal offense on his record.

Rojas faced a sentencing range of up to 60 days in jail for the conviction on the amended charge. Defense attorney Susan Oglebay and deputy prosecutor Laiminger recommended to the court that Rojas be sentenced to 10 days in jail, with all 10 days converted to a total of 80 hours of community service.

Superior Court Judge John Antosz followed the recommendation, imposing 80 hours of community service to be completed at a rate of 20 hours per month.

According to Royal City police records, officers were contacted by the victim's brother on May 25, 2013, with the complainant stating he believed he saw his brother's stolen motorcycle earlier that day. The motorcycle was reported stolen in November 2012 and valued at $9,000, records show.

The witness told police he believed the motorcycle he saw was the motorcycle that was stolen from his brother because of several characteristics of the bike. The bike was reportedly seen in the back of a pick-up.

The witness reportedly took pictures of the bike and the license plate of the pick-up it was in at the time he spotted it, and provided those pictures to officers.

Police located the vehicle several days later in the 300 block of Calla Street in Royal City, according to records. A witness who lived at that residence told police he purchased the motorcycle from Rojas. The witness stated he went to Rojas' residence to look at the bike and two other people were there.

According to police records, Rojas told the witness he wanted $1,500 for the motorcycle, but that the "papers" for the bike would be made available at a later date. The witness purchased the bicycle about two months prior to being contacted by police and had since tried several times to reach Rojas about the papers, but Rojas never returned his calls, records show.

The witness showed police to the motorcycle, and officers were able to confirm it was the stolen bike using the vehicle identification number.

Royal City police then contacted Rojas at his residence. Rojas reportedly initially denied selling a motorcycle to anyone and denied knowing the witness who reportedly purchased the motorcycle from him.

After police informed him of the conversation with the witness who named Rojas as the seller, Rojas then admitted he sold the motorcycle to the witness, saying he was initially confused if officers were talking about a street bike or a dirt bike.

Rojas told officers he did not steal the bike, but he purchased it from a friend for $850.