ST. GEORGE — Two men are in jail facing more than a dozen charges after police started to receive calls reporting car burglaries at Snow Canyon State Park the weekend of March 25-26.
Officers were dispatched March 26 to a vehicle burglary reported in the Walmart parking lot on Pioneer Road in St. George. The 911 caller reportedly told police the car was broken into earlier that day while they were hiking at Snow Canyon State Park, adding that their wallet was stolen.
After discovering their bank cards had been taken, the reporting party said they started receiving notifications that the cards were being used at Walmart, the report states.
They went to the store, where they reportedly found two men at the self-checkout attempting to use multiple cards to pay for their items and began recording the suspects with a cellphone.
Minutes later, the report alleges, the suspects ran out of the store and were apprehended by officers.
The two suspects were identified as Luigi Marin- Sanchez, 18, of Los Angeles, California, and Juan Carlos Barrientos-Sanchez, 41, of Santiago, Chile.
During the incident, officers located a wallet containing nearly a dozen bank cards belonging to three individuals, none of whom were the suspects. Officers also checked the store’s surveillance footage which showed both suspects using several different cards at the self-checkout.
When investigators attempted to speak to Sanchez, the suspect told police he did not want to talk to them. He was arrested and booked into jail in Washington County.
Officers also contacted one victim whose cards were among those found in the wallet. The victim said their car had been broken into and their wallet was stolen earlier that day while they were hiking in Snow Canyon State Park. The incident had been reported to officers in Washington City earlier that same day, according to charging documents filed with the courts.
Similar to the St. George incidents, in the Washington City case, the reporting party told officers that shortly after their car was broken into, they received account notifications that their cards were being used at the Washington City Walmart. When officers responded to the store on Telegraph Street, they reviewed security footage which showed a man wearing a baseball cap and face mask at the self-checkout line using multiple cards to pay for his purchases.
“It appeared the male would go through the cards he had in his possession until one would work,” the officer noted.
It also appeared that once the suspect left the checkout stand, he lowered his head as he passed several security cameras while exiting the store and continued walking toward the rear of the parking lot.
Later that same day, officers learned that Barrientos-Sanchez was arrested in St. George and matched the description of the individual suspected in the vehicle Washington City burglary.
Police also recovered the victim’s bank cards during the arrest on Pioneer Road in St. George, the report states.
Officers in Washington City sent photos of their suspect to law enforcement counterparts in St. George, who confirmed they had the same man in custody: Barrientos-Sanchez.
Both suspects were arrested and transported to jail in Washington County, each facing more than a dozen charges following the incidents in St. George that include 11 third-degree felony counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card and two misdemeanor counts of vehicle burglary.
Bartientos-Sanchez also faces three additional third-degree felony charges of unlawful use of a financial transaction card and one misdemeanor count of vehicle burglary filed in connection with the incident in Washington City.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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