Santa Rosa men sought in Mendocino County home invasion

Two Santa Rosa men are being sought in connection with a home-invasion robbery last month in Mendocino County, authorities there said Friday.

Nathan Zingarelli, 19, and Mark Anthony Papillion, 21, are wanted in connection with a Sept. 7 robbery in the rural community of Redwood Valley in which a resident of the home was held at gunpoint and assaulted for about an hour while four intruders ransacked his house, sheriff’s officials said.

The incident was one of three unrelated home-invasion robberies reported in inland Mendocino County in the past three months that have provoked concern and fear on the part of local communities, Sheriff Tom Allman said.

Each case involved violence, Allman said. And, based on the statements and actions of the culprits, each incident appeared driven by the belief there was marijuana and money on hand for the taking.

He said his department had committed more than 1,500 hours of investigation to the cases, with two of his five detectives assigned full time, and that suspects have been identified in two of three cases, including two groups of men from outside the county.

“These are a top priority for us,” he said.

The crimes include an Oct. 8, Ukiah-area case in which a 37-year-old woman was raped and an 80-year-old man was physically assaulted after three men forced their way into their Redemeyer Road home, Allman said.

Four Southern California men were identified as suspects in that case after Windsor police stopped them for a traffic violation on Highway 101 in Sonoma County, apparently while they were en route back to San Bernardino County, authorities said.

The vehicle “reeked” of fresh marijuana, authorities said, and officers found drugs, guns and other contraband, as well as three black bandannas and a ski mask, in the car, leading to further investigation and linkage with the robbery a few hours earlier up north, authorities said.

One of the suspects previously lived in the targeted house, and had a relative there, Allman said.

In the September case, two alleged co-defendants of Zingarelli and Papillion, both of them 19, also are in custody in Sonoma County, Mendocino County sheriff’s personnel said.

Calvin Jordan Bausley and Angelo Giovanni Ward were jailed separately over the past six weeks in pending Sonoma County cases involving alleged weapons and receipt of stolen property charges, as well as other offenses, jail personnel said.

They and the two outstanding suspects believed to have committed the home invasion on East Road in Redwood Valley had some previous connection with the resident, authorities said. The intruders demanded money and marijuana when they confronted him inside the house at 4 a.m. and proceeded to assault him before fleeing with several firearms, a few marijuana plants and other personal property, officials said.

Only the first robbery, Aug. 21 on Colony Drive in Redwood Valley, appears to have been random, Allman said.

In that case, two men with covered faces entered the house through an unlocked bedroom door, struck a 60-year-old woman in the head with a pistol and tied her up, authorities said. The struggle awakened her husband, who was threatened at gunpoint, bound and left face down in a closet, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The suspects took money, a shotgun and a diamond and opal ring they forcibly removed from the woman’s hand, authorities said.

Authorities said there was no indication the couple was involved in large-scale marijuana cultivation.

Allman said his staff badly wants to solve the case and hopes the taint of marijuana does not dissuade people from reporting such crimes.

Anyone with information can call the department’s tip line at 234-2100.

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