Research Project on a Possible MS-13 Shooting on TX Police
Takeover Bandits suspect indicted
Picture of one bandit at this link
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... b1c3c.html
Police say DNA evidence links man to getaway vehicle
10:55 AM CST on Thursday, December 2, 2004
By MATT STILES / The Dallas Morning News
A man Richardson police say is linked by DNA evidence to a brazen bank robbery and violent getaway last month faces new charges after a federal grand jury in Dallas indicted him Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors allege that Guadalupe Fajardo, 31, was one of three men who, armed with assault-style rifles, robbed a Richardson bank of $11,000 on Nov. 4.
The three – suspected members of an elusive and prolific gang known as the Takeover Bandits – got away by carjacking vehicles and spraying automatic gunfire at police across Dallas and Collin counties.
Police and the FBI are still looking for two of the robbers.
Mr. Fajardo was taken into custody in West Texas two days after the heist on state charges of attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery.
In Dallas, Mr. Fajardo faces single federal counts of bank robbery and brandishing a gun during a violent crime.
It's also likely that additional federal charges for the carjackings, which happened in a different U.S. attorney's district, could be made public soon.
Given the various jurisdictions, both state and federal authorities in Dallas and Collin counties would then have to sort out when and where Mr. Fajardo would go to trial.
"We'll sit down and talk and see who goes first," said Richardson police Detective Jonathan Wakefield.
He testified Wednesday that investigators found bodily fluid with DNA matching Mr. Fajardo's on an airbag in a carjacked pickup the robbers wrecked in Plano during the getaway.
Federal prosecutors declined to comment.
Assistant Dallas County District Attorney Pat Kirlin said he would meet with them soon to decide how to proceed.
Detective Wakefield's testimony, which came at a pretrial hearing in Dallas, offered a glimpse of what investigators believe is a strong case.
Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and restrained by irons and a shock belt, Mr. Fajardo whispered to his attorney but didn't address the court during the short hearing. Afterward, a judge ruled that there was probable cause to bind the case over to a state grand jury.
Detective Wakefield, who has helped an FBI task force with the case, said two witnesses identified Mr. Fajardo as being involved in the melee after the Greenville Avenue robbery.
After two minutes in the bank, the masked and gloved men drove north on U.S. Highway 75. The robbers then shot at an off-duty Richardson police officer who, unaware of the robbery, followed behind.
The robbers' sport utility vehicle then continued north into Plano, and they shot at a second officer on Plano Parkway. The men carjacked a white Chevrolet pickup at Summit and Stewart avenues, moments later crashing into another vehicle.
It was then, authorities say, that Mr. Fajardo, a passenger who at some point shed his mask, made contact with the airbag.
Witnesses say they then saw him as the robbers tried to get another getaway car, Detective Wakefield said.
Police released photos of Mr. Fajardo and another man that night.
Two days later, Mr. Fajardo was arrested at a West Texas police station, where he walked in voluntarily after his girlfriend's relatives saw news reports of the incident.
Detective Wakefield testified that he noticed that Mr. Fajardo had cuts and bruises when he interviewed him in West Texas.
Mr. Fajardo first asked for a lawyer but later said that he "did the right thing" for his loved ones by turning himself in and that he was prepared to "face his medicine," Detective Wakefield testified.
Mr. Fajardo's court-appointed attorney, Paul Johnson of Dallas, asked Detective Wakefield why some of the witnesses in Plano couldn't single out his client.
"It just seems to me altogether strange that people that supposedly came into close proximity couldn't identify him" while others who were farther away could, Mr. Johnson said after the hearing, his first chance to hear about the evidence.
Meanwhile, the search continues for two other men who the FBI believes played a role in dozens of armed bank and business robberies in the Dallas area in recent years.
"We're getting close," Detective Wakefield said. He declined to elaborate.
