Clearlake man arrested in Jack in the Box armed robbery

A 19-year-old Clearlake man has been jailed on suspicion robbery and kidnapping after his arrest in connection with the armed hold-up of a local Jack in the Box restaurant.

Giovanni Madrigal-Rincon surrendered after a brief attempt to escape police officers waiting for him as he emerged from a Travelodge motel in the hours after the Tuesday morning robbery, authorities said.

Authorities said they believe him to be the masked intruder who approached two workers outside the Jack in the Box on Dam Road shortly before 2 a.m. closing time Tuesday. The masked man ordered them inside at gunpoint, and then forced a third employee to take him to a small safe in the office before escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Authorities said the victims watched the robber run across Dam Road to a McDonald’s parking lot, and then observed a silver four-door sedan leaving there, going toward Highway 53.

Police said they established information early on identifying Madrigal-Rincon as a possible suspect and through the night developed additional leads suggesting he was involved.

Police were watching a residence and several other locations in Clearlake and Lower Lake trying to find him before an officer around 7 a.m. saw a 2001 Volvo sedan matching Madrigal-Rincon’s at the Travelodge, less than two miles from the crime scene.

Police had surrounded the motel when Madrigal-Rincon, holding a shotgun similar to that reported used in the robbery, exited a second-floor unit with a female companion.

He appeared to be repositioning the gun in his hands and was ordered to put his hands up, but instead jumped from the balcony to the ground and ran toward a nearby baseball field, dropping the firearm before he scrambled over a chain-link fence, police said.

Officers were preparing to deploy a police dog when Madrigal-Rincon suddenly dropped to the ground, lay on his stomach and surrendered, police said.

Authorities said he appeared to be wearing the same clothes as those worn at the robbery, but they found only a small amount of the cash they believed had been stolen.

The woman was questioned and released, police said.

Madrigal-Rincon was booked into the Lake County Jail for the kidnapping/robbery, but police said they plan to file additional charges from the District Attorney’s Office, including assault with a deadly weapon. Madrigal-Rincon was being held with bail set at $300,000, according to jail records.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.