LOS ANGELES — A gun registered to notorious LA police officer Christopher Dorner was found in the Airbnb home of two men accused of stealing a $1 million watch in Beverly Hills, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Investigators discovered the gun on Aug. 10 after connecting the rental vehicle to a vehicle involved in another theft in Beverly Hills, authorities said. One of the suspects, Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, a 19-year-old Venezuelan national, told police he had the gun in his hand and left it in the Airbnb, authorities said. The gun is registered to Dorner, who killed four people in 2013.
Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar, a 21-year-old Colombian national, and Padron are part of a “crime tourism” group that had been staying at the rental apartment, authorities said. The gun was in a pillowcase on a bed where a witness told police Padron had been sleeping, an affidavit said.
Sepulveda and Padron were stopped in the vehicle on Tuesday and charged with armed robbery.
Authorities are currently investigating how the men got hold of the killer’s weapon, said Justice Department spokesman Ciaran McEvoy. Dorner, who felt unfairly treated by the police when he was fired, killed the daughter of a former police captain and her fiancé, as well as two other people, within nine days in 2013 before dying in a dramatic struggle with police.
Sepulveda and Padron told investigators they were involved in an armed robbery of a $30,000 Rolex in Beverly Hills on Aug. 5. Two days later, they stole the watch, which is estimated to be worth more than $1 million, the affidavit said.
One suspect pointed a gun at a man sitting on the Beverly Wilshire Hotel’s restaurant patio with his wife and two daughters while the other removed the silver Patek Philippe watch from his wrist, the affidavit states. The crew had been monitoring the luxury watch for two weeks, Sepulveda told police.
The two men told investigators they had been staying at the Airbnb and had photos of the stolen Patek Philippe watch on their cell phones.
Prosecutors say members of these crime tourism groups “lead a nomadic lifestyle to avoid arrest by police by staying in Airbnbs and cash-oriented motels, among other places.”
Sepulveda and Padron are both in custody and appeared in court Tuesday. They will be arraigned next month in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.
