Halaweh, who goes by the Twitter handle @momoney1521, clearly has a taste for high-end cars and homes, Raasch said.
"He likes living a rock star lifestyle," he said.
His bail was increased to $1 million. Scott Jamar, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the most recent case, said the amount reflects Halaweh's "sophistication," as well as "his ability to fraudulently obtain bail money."
Halaweh's attorney, William DuBois, did not return a call seeking comment Monday afternoon.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Halaweh on Wednesday after spotting him in the Roseland area, driving a tangerine-colored McLaren sports car that had been reported stolen earlier that day, Raasch said.
His passenger, Nhimia Kahsay, 19, of Santa Rosa, was booked into jail for outstanding fraud warrants out of Del Norte County and will likely face additional charges related to the ongoing investigation, detectives said.
Detectives believe Halaweh used stolen credit card information to rent the McLaren for $13,000 from an exotic rental car company near the San Jose airport.
The case began to take shape when the manager of a Food Maxx store on Stony Point Road noticed the unusually nice car parked in the grocery store's lot for several hours Wednesday morning and alerted police, Raasch said.
Police contacted the rental company. At first the company said the car was a legitimate rental, but then determined fraudulent credit information had been used, Raasch said. Santa Rosa police then issued an alert to be on the lookout for the vehicle, Raasch said.
The same credit information was used to rent a $12 million vacation home in Glen Ellen for $27,000, detectives said. Deputies were called to the rental mansion on June 3 for a report of a large party, and they reported seeing a McLaren drive away from the party. Halaweh has not admitted to renting the home, Raasch said.
Halaweh, who remained in jail Monday, faces eight charges, including auto theft, possession of a stolen vehicle, three counts of identity theft and three counts of credit card theft.
He is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning to enter a plea.
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