Robbery suspects arraigned

By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor

HART TOWNSHIP — Two Shelby men accused of robbing the La Mexicana De Pancho grocery store at gunpoint Friday evening, Dec. 13, were arraigned in Oceana County’s 79th District Court Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Benitez

Jorge Soriano Benitez, 38, whose address is listed as 98 Sessions Rd., and Miguel Angel Vargas-Mares, 23, whose address is listed as 73 Sixth St., both pleaded not guilty to charges of armed robbery and felony firearm, according to court records. Bail was set at $500,000 cash/surety for both defendants who are lodged in the Oceana County Jail, said Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast. An armed robbery conviction is punishable by up to life in prison.

The robbery occurred Friday at 6:20 p.m. at the store located at 2361 North Oceana Drive.

“The weapon used was a pistol,” said Oceana County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Bizon.

Vargas-Mares

A man suffered minor injuries during the robbery, said Sheriff Mast. “One victim received some facial abrasions when he was assaulted. There was a very brief struggle. The weapon used was displayed and threatened prominently.”

Authorities are declining to specify how much cash was stolen. 

“My deputies followed up on several different leads, which led them to residences in Shelby and Hart where they had reason to believe the suspects were there, and they were arrested.” The two suspects were arrested later Friday night.

“The weapon was recovered. We impounded their vehicles, and the evidence that we recovered — some of it is technology-based — is quite strong. We did recover some amounts of cash,” Mast said.

“My guys did a fantastic job following up on some leads and following the evidence. They ran a very aggressive investigation and were able to follow the leads to the bad guys.”

“The detectives and the road (patrol) guys did an excellent job on this,” said Prosecutor Bizon.

Both defendants were assigned court-appointed attorneys, and they are both scheduled to appear in district court Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. for a preliminary exam.

La Mexicana de Pancho was defrauded $80,000 in an organized scam operation two years ago.

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