Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2008

Check cashing robbery

By Paula Horton, Herald staff writer

A 21-year-old Pasco woman suspected of helping an armed robber who hit two Kennewick check cashing businesses this month was arrested Monday, police said.

Yesenia Lopez was booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion of rendering criminal assistance.

A tip led Kennewick detectives to the getaway vehicle Monday and later to Augustin Monteon, 24, of Pasco. Monteon is suspected of using a shotgun during the robberies.

Evidence and a weapon tied to the robbery were recovered after the arrest, police said.

Lopez and Monteon also are linked in a Franklin County Superior Court case, where both are accused of attacking a man with a baseball bat July 11 outside a taco truck in Pasco.

Both face Oct. 15 trials after pleading innocent to second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.

The duo was arrested after Lopez, who lost her cell phone during the scuffle, called it and unknowingly arranged a meeting with a cop. After describing her car to the Pasco officer, police stopped it and found Lopez in the front passenger seat and Monteon in the back seat with an aluminum baseball bat at his feet, court documents said.