Latino trio fate still hangs in the balance

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198 days in jail and more to go as no decision reached

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Three Venezuelan nationals who were arrested in Hopkins County on charges of alleged fraud and organized criminal activity have spent 198 days in jail — and still have more to go, according to a decision by 8th district court judge Eddie Northcutt.

Edmaira Burgos Morales, 26, Yexsy Mullor Agudelo, 33, and Yosender Maldonado Rojas, 38, have all been charged with one count each of credit or debit card abuse and engaging in organized criminal activity.

They all also have one charge of credit or debit card abuse out of Morris county. All are held on a total of $150,000 in bonds.

The three first arrested at Red River Credit Union at 822 Gilmer St. on Dec. 8, 2018, according to police documents.

Police initially responded to a call from a concerned citizen about suspicious activity at the location, according to reports.

When officers responded, they found the party to allegedly be in possession of approximately 75 gift cards with a magnetic strip, Sulphur Springs Police Detective Rusty Stillwagoner said.

Officers then verified the party had allegedly linked the magnetic strips on the gift cards to account holder information for members of the credit union, according to police.

“They were [allegedly] getting as much money as they could until the card wouldn’t function anymore, and then they’d [allegedly] use another one, and that’s why they’d [allegedly] been sitting at that machine so long,” Stillwagoner said.

Although the trio hold Venezuela passports, according to police documents, they obtained what Stillwagoner called, “Vacation-style visas” and then, from Mexico, entered the U.S. through Miami.

Stillwagoner said it is “unknown to us at this time” whether the three committed any crimes in any other states.

The future of the case is uncertain. According to the Hopkins County Clerk’s office, the case was meant to sent to final decision before Judge Northcutt on May 14; however, the date was pushed to June 19 per request of a proxy sent by Jonathan Newsom, their attorney, according to Hopkins County Records.

Newsom and all three defendants were present for a hearing on June 19, but, no decision was made about whether or not they would be formally charged at that time.

According to Hopkins County records, the new date for their final hearing is now Aug. 26.

At that point, the three will have been in jail 261 days.

Calls to the trio’s attorney were not returned.