Man, boys charged with duct-taping elderly woman in Kennewick burglary

Prosecutors think two teen brothers should be tried as adults for allegedly taping an elderly Kennewick woman to a recliner while they stole firearms and jewelry from her home.

For now, Jefferson Palomo Olmedo, 12, and his older brother, Luis Palomo Olmedo, 14, are charged in Benton County Juvenile Court with first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping and theft of a firearm.

The boys and an adult were arrested the morning after the Dec. 18 home invasion when police located a van with the stolen items inside.

Laura Dunbar, 73, had been able to call for help once she chewed through the duct tape and freed herself.

But because they are serious crimes, Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Howell said his office is asking a judge to decline juvenile jurisdiction and move the cases to adult court.

Defense attorneys have agreed to delay the hearings until February, giving them time to prepare arguments as to why the brothers should remain in Juvenile Court.

The alleged accomplice, Eric A. Rosas, 21, of Kennewick, already pleaded innocent in Benton County Superior Court. His burglary and kidnapping charges include aggravating circumstances of victim vulnerability and deliberate cruelty.

Rosas has a Feb. 13 trial date. He is held on $100,000 bail in the Benton County jail.

The Palomo Olmedo brothers are locked up in juvenile detention on $75,000 each.

The crime was the first of two in the Tri-Cities within three days involving elderly women attacked in their homes.

On Dec. 21, Martha Turner was painting in her Richland home when Jared W. Pruitt allegedly tried to strangle her. Pruitt, a friend of the 74-year-old woman’s grandson, has been charged with second-degree assault.

In the Kennewick case, Dunbar told police that she fell asleep in her chair about 5 p.m. and later awoke to strangers trying to restrain her.

Dunbar reported one male put his hands over her mouth, while another grabbed her arms and said, “Keep quiet or I’ll kill you b----.” Her wrists were taped together, her head and chest were taped to the chair, and her head was covered with a pillowcase.

She got a quick glimpse of two suspects, telling investigators that one male had a dark covering over his head and another wore a black and white herringbone pattern jacket.

The suspect wearing the checkered jacket was later identified as Jefferson Palomo Olmedo, court documents said.

Dunbar heard her assailants speaking in Spanish as they ran through the South Hawthorne Street home, knocking things over and opening drawers. She estimates they were in the home for a half-hour. She then waited a while to make sure they were gone before getting free of her bindings, documents said.

The first officers at the scene found a ransacked home with a large amount of duct tape on a recliner chair. A roll of tape was left behind on the entertainment center. Missing property included a safe, a .22 revolver and a .380 Ruger semiautomatic, court documents said.

Dunbar had fresh-looking cuts on her hand, red marks on her wrists and dried blood near her mouth, documents said.

She was taken to Trios Southridge Hospital in Kennewick to be treated for some heart issues that flared up during the incident, police said.

Detectives who already were looking at the Palomo Olmedo brothers for a string of auto thefts and vehicle prowls knew they lived nearby on Eighth Avenue, court documents said. Investigators checked their home and known hangouts, and allegedly found shoe prints outside a Columbia Drive trailer that matched distinctive prints at the victim’s home.

A Mazda MPV was parked in front of the trailer, and detectives could see in plain view an unopened safe, green military ammo cans, stuffed pillowcases and jewelry, documents said. The items were confirmed to belong to Dunbar, and police got a search warrant for the van.

Rosas and the brothers were arrested at that home.

Rosas told detectives he had been staying with the Palomo Olmedos and that the three of them went to the victim’s home, court documents said. He claimed he knocked on the door, then one of them climbed through a window and let the others into Dumbar’s house.

Rosas admitted to taping Dunbar’s mouth and said all the stolen property was in the Mazda van, documents said.

Jefferson Palomo Olmedo said he drove around Kennewick with his brother and Rosas from 2 to 9 p.m. Dec. 18, documents said. When told his shoe prints were similar to ones found in snowpack at the crime scene, the 12-year-old boy stopped the interview and said he would only talk with an attorney.

This story was originally published January 1, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Man, boys charged with duct-taping elderly woman in Kennewick burglary."