A 32-year-old Palm Springs man involved in a 2023 operation where a person was lured into a vehicle, driven away and robbed is Monday serving a prison sentence of more than six years.
Nicholas Tyler Young, accused of being the driver in the robbery, was sentenced Friday. He entered a guilty plea on July 23 to one felony count of robbery, according to court records.
Young received a court-indicated offer of six years and eight months in prison, with one prior alleged strike in the case being dismissed by the court, Thalia Hall of the Riverside County District Attorney's office told City News Service on Monday.
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Co-defendant Lucero Barraza Cagno, 33, of Indio, was charged with one felony count each of robbery, receiving a stolen vehicle, taking a vehicle without the owner's consent and possessing a leaded cane, according to court records. She pleaded not guilty to all charges in August 2023 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
Her next appearance is a drug court evaluation scheduled for Friday.
Deputies from the Palm Desert sheriff's station responded July 29, 2023, to a report of a robbery in an unincorporated area of Riverside County near Thousand Palms, according to Sgt. Jeff Cryder of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
It was alleged that a woman, who was at an establishment in the 32200 block of Bob Hope Drive, contacted the victim, who was subsequently lured into a vehicle in the parking lot, Cryder said. When the victim got inside the vehicle, two other suspects were also in the vehicle, which was driven off with the victim still inside.
"After driving the victim to the area of Ramon Road and Thousand Palms Canyon Road, the driver of the vehicle brandished a black semi-automatic handgun and demanded all the victim's belongings," Cryder wrote in a statement.
The driver was described as a man with various tattoos covering his head and body while the other two suspects were described as two women, one in her 30s and one in her 40s, according to Cryder. Young was arrested Aug. 2 after being identified as the suspect driver. Cagno was later arrested after being identified as one of the women who lured the victim, and the other woman remained at large.
The Rancho Mirage Special Enforcement Team arrested Young during a traffic stop in the 68000 block of Ramon Road and Cagno in an unspecified area in Coachella.
According to court records, Cagno remains held at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on $35,000 bail.
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