Jewelry

It’s taken more than a year, but police on Friday filed arrest warrants for three men who they say were behind a violent carjacking turned attempted jewelry store heist in 2015.

According to court records, Pedro Inez Ramirez, 27, Kevin Scott Starnes, 43, and Jesus Miguel Ochoa, 24, face charges of aggravated robbery and burglary of a building in connection with the Oct. 10, 2015 incident.

A juvenile suspect has also been accused of being involved, but his identity has not been released.

Around 2 a.m., a man was carjacked in a parking lot in the 9000 block of the Interstate 35 service road near Rundberg Lane.

The man told police he pulled over to check his tire pressure when four men pulled up in an SUV and pulled him out of the truck.

He said he was thrown to the ground and kicked in the face. Then one of the men hopped into his truck and drove it away as the others took off in the SUV, the affidavit said.

About two hours later, officers received reports of a burglar alarm at a jewelry store in the 6000 block of Interstate 35. When they got to the store, they found that the stolen truck had been driven through the front of the building.

Surveillance footage inside the store showed a driver get out of the truck and three others run into the store, according to the affidavit.

Police were later able to identify one of the suspects through fingerprints found on a vehicle and used cell phone tracking technology, along with interviews, to tie the others to the crime.

After being arrested, the suspects told police that all the jewelry in the store had been removed from display cases for the night by the time they arrived, so they were unable to make off with anything.

Both Starnes and Ramirez are currently in custody at the Travis County Jail, but Ochoa was not listed as in custody on Monday afternoon.