Trial Of Four Teens Set For June In Home-Invasion Case

Trial is set for June 27 for four University Place teens charged with the January home-invasion robbery of an 86-year-old woman.

Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Fred Wist said Vernon Lee Ward, Tre'Vonn Bernard Rollins, Miguel Wayne Ramos, all 17, and Richard Benjamin Torres, 16, remain in custody in the Pierce County Jail with bail set at $500,000 for Ward and $350,000 for each of the others.

The four, each charged with robbery and burglary in the first degree with firearm enhancements, are scheduled to appear June 3 in Dept. 14 for an omnibus hearing before Pierce County Superior Court Judge Susan Serko.  They are being tried as adults.

Court papers allege the four teens broke into the woman’s home in the 8800 block of 27th Street West, apparently gaining access through a kitchen window.  Tacoma police found the window broken, the power line to the cordless phone severed and the batteries to the headset removed.

The woman who lives there told police that four men wearing bandanas, gloves and socks over their hands woke her up in her bedroom approximately 3 a.m.  Two allegedly were armed with black, semi-automatic handguns, "and called her by her first name, telling her that they needed money," court papers said.

The woman told police the suspects ordered her to write a check for several thousand dollars.

"… (The woman) was so afraid and shaking so badly that she was unable to write clearly," court papers state.

After writing a third check, the suspects allegedly threatened they were going to hold her until the bank opened in the morning, when she could get them cash.

With one of the teens allegedly holding her at gunpoint, the other three spent the next three hours ransacking her house for valuables. They allegedly took her purse, credit and debit cards, cell phone, keys and car.

Authorities told Patch earlier the four teens may have been involved in as many as 32 burglaries in University Place since New Year’s Eve.