Alvarado bail remains $200K

MONTROSE — Claims that burglary suspect Michael Alvarado’s bond was excessive failed to persuade the judge to lower it Thursday.

Alvarado, 21, is suspected of breaking into Montrose Police Chief Tom Chinn’s home, with co-defendant Tyler Carr, 20, last January.

The two are also suspected in three other Montrose-area burglaries, which occurred in December 2007, Jan. 3, 2008 and April 24, 2008. Additionally, they have burglary cases in San Miguel County stemming from incidents in Sawpit in July of 2008.

Defense attorney Stephen Schweissing argued Thursday that Alvarado’s $200,000 bond was out of step with the offenses charged.

“I know the charges in this case are serious, but it’s my belief the bond in the current amount is excessive,” Schweissing said, telling Judge John Mitchel his client posed no threat to the community.

Assistant District Attorney Jerry Montgomery disagreed. Guns were stolen from Chinn’s residence and from the home of 2007’s burglary victim.

In Sawpit, authorities said two men, later identified as Alvarado and Carr, posed as housepainters before burgling homes. Alvarado was arrested on the Sawpit case in Commerce City, Colo., after he was found sleeping in a van outside a relative’s residence. (Carr later turned himself in).

Montgomery said Alvarado recently pleaded guilty to a class-3 felony in the Sawpit matter and his community corrections sentence was now “up in the air” because of the Montrose case.

“The flight risk is pretty high in this case. He has a lot at stake,” Montgomery said.

Schweissing said, however, that the Montrose charges are from offenses that predate Alvarado’s plea to the San Miguel County charges, so the implication Alvarado picked up a new case while awaiting sentencing was inaccurate.

Montgomery then presented a laundry list of offenses from Alvarado’s criminal history, including obstructing a peace officer, false reporting, probation violation, fugitive from justice, vehicle trespass, aggravated motor vehicle theft, DUI, shoplifting, failure to appear and traffic offenses.

Mitchel said the issue wasn’t just whether Alvarado would appear in court, but whether he posed a risk for committing crimes.

“There’s a series of five burglaries that we know about. The failures to appear were in 2008,” Mitchel said.

“Given all these circumstances, the motion to modify bail is denied.”

Alvarado returns to court Jan. 15. Carr is due in court Jan. 26. Both men have been formally charged with several counts of burglary and theft.

According to court records, Carr’s mother and Alvarado’s mother-in-law, Darlene Belarde, was charged with misdemeanor theft for her alleged role in helping sell one of the guns taken from Chinn’s house. Belarde’s next court date is Jan. 17.