Two arrested in burglary of Sonoma home

<p>The case that investigators called despicable and brought outrage from North Coast residents broke less than 24 hours after the house break-in was first reported.</p><p>An ex-convict from San Mateo County and his girlfriend were arrested late Tuesday night, suspected of ransacking the home of a Sonoma couple and two children killed in a weekend crash, then making off with family valuables and the couple's car.</p><p>San Mateo Police officers pulled over Amber Marie True, 29, Tuesday, in a traffic stop and discovered a credit card belonging to one of the victims, authorities said. True also had jewelry in her pocket and a Blu-ray disc player in the car marked with identifying features linking it to the Sonoma family of John and Susan Maloney, Sonoma Police Chief Bret Sackett said.</p><p>True, who had a suspended driver's license and a pending drug possession case, was pulled over into a San Mateo 7-Eleven parking lot by members of the department's Street Crime Team, San Mateo Police Sgt. Bob Szelenyi said. No details were available about what led to the traffic stop.</p><p>The officers, he said, discovered her license was invalid and turned up the credit card during a search. They made the connection to the well-publicized Sonoma burglary at the home of the Maloneys, who were killed along with their two children in a car crash Saturday night in the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Highway 37. Their home was looted three nights later.</p><p>The San Mateo County Sheriff's Department also became involved, tracking down information on True's boyfriend, Michael Vincent Gutierrez, 26, and sending deputies to the home the couple shared off Skyline Boulevard between Redwood City and Half Moon Bay.</p><p>Sonoma County deputies arrived and staked out the rural Marine Road residence where the Maloneys' silver 2006 Nissan 360Z was parked in the driveway, Sackett said.</p><p>Around 9:40 p.m., while the detectives were waiting for a search warrant authorizing them to go in, Gutierrez came out of the house and got into the car, authorities said.</p><p>He was stopped and arrested as he tried to drive away.</p><p>Once inside the house, detectives found most of the property they believe was taken from the Maloneys' Fryer Creek Drive home, including jewelry, financial records, electronics and other personal property, Sackett said.</p><p>Both True and Gutierrez were transported to Sonoma County and booked into the Sonoma County Jail, where they were being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, officials said.</p><p>They were scheduled to make their first court appearances Thursday afternoon.</p><p>Both suspects have pending criminal cases in San Mateo County court - True for drug possession and Gutierrez for suspected possession of stolen property, unlawful possession of a firearm by an ex-convict, and drug possession, according to court records.</p><p>His criminal record dates back at least to the age of 18 and includes two prior convictions for felony grand theft in 2001 and 2002, for which he drew probation and a three-year prison sentence, according to San Mateo County court records.</p><p>He had two additional convictions for reckless evasion of police in 2005 and 2006, drawing 16 months and three years in prison, court records said.</p><p>Sackett would not say if detectives suspected any others in the Sonoma burglary case.</p><p>He said detectives are continuing to follow up on new leads in the case. They were trying to determine whether there was a link between the suspects and the Maloney family, or if the burglary was simply a crime of opportunity, Sonoma County Sheriff's Detective Lt. Chris Spallino said.</p><p>“It does not appear that they have any local connection. But how they came to target the Maloneys' house has yet to be determined,” Sackett said.</p><p>The suspects apparently live in a home tucked away amid tall pines and redwoods along a narrow, privately maintained road where law enforcement officials apprehended Gutierrez with the stolen car.</p><p>About 1,100 families, mostly homeowners, live along the winding one-lane roads in the rural neighborhood, called King's Mountain, along Skyline Boulevard said neighbor Cindy Phelps.</p><p>Phelps, who lives nearby on County Road said that people may think the neighborhood is so rural that crimes could go unnoticed. But she said that neighbors keep a close eye on each other.</p><p>“People ditch cars here and even trash occasionally,” Phelps said.</p><p>The Saturday night crash that took the lives of the Maloneys and their children, 5-year-old Grace and Aiden, 8, was highly publicized in the San Francisco Bay Area by both TV and print media outlets, including information about the south Sonoma neighborhood where neighbors of the family were grieving and floral tributes sat outside the home's front door.</p><p>The Maloneys were killed at Highway 37 and Lakeville Highway as they headed home to Sonoma after a Thanksgiving vacation in Hawaii.</p><p>Another driver, Lakeport resident Steven Culbertson, 19, died the next morning. The CHP said it appeared Culbertson was speeding when he struck a car and then smashed into the Maloney's minivan.</p><p>Authorities discovered Tuesday morning that someone had broken into the Maloney's home on Fryer Creek Drive sometime after midnight, making off with personal property and the car, police said.</p><p>At the time, Sackett called the crime “incredibly despicable,” while San Mateo County Sheriff's Lt. Wes Matsuura called it “just rotten.”</p><p>“You can't even describe how low this got,” Matsuura said Wednesday.</p><p>A Redwood City woman whose daughter has three children with Gutierrez said he called early Wednesday to let the girls' mother know of his arrest.</p><p>Paula Martinez said Gutierrez told her daughter he did not know of the tragedy that had befallen the Maloneys and said he had been given their address by someone else.</p><p>Martinez said Gutierrez once lived with her, along with her daughter and granddaughters, but that their relationship deteriorated because of his behavior toward her daughter. She said she last saw him on Thanksgiving, when he stopped by for about 30 minutes to visit the girls.</p><p>One of them is almost 3, born in January 2007 around the time Gutierrez headed off to prison the last time. There also are 4-month-old twins conceived after his release from prison; he and the twins'mother split up soon after they were born, Martinez said.</p><p>Sackett said he was thrilled to have a break in the case so soon after the burglary.</p><p>“Obviously, we're very happy about the arrests,” he said. “We're hoping it will bring a certain sense of comfort to the family who is already having to deal with tremendous grieving and loss of a loved one.”</p><p>Preparations continued Wednesday for a memorial service planned Friday in Sonoma. The service is at 2 p.m. at the Sonoma Community Center.</p><p>Children at Prescott Elementary School, where the Maloney children attended, will be releasing biodegradeable balloons on Friday morning as a way to say goodbye to their friends.</p><p>At 5 p.m. that day, family supporters will meet at Prestwood to begin a walking memorial up to Sonoma Plaza in memory of the family, to participate in the lighting of the holiday tree at City Hall.</p>