Three members of what prosecutors described as a sophisticated burglary crew were sentenced to jail last week for a multimillion-dollar jewelry heist in Simi Valley last year.
Heidy Trujillo, 26, was sentenced to four years in Ventura County jail and Manuel David Ibarra, 38, and Camilo Antonio Aguilar Lara, 32, each received four years and four months, the Ventura County district attorney’s office said in a news release. A fourth defendant, Sergio Andres Mejía-Machuca, 27, had his sentencing hearing continued to March 26.
“The planning, surveillance, and sophistication involved in this case required the defendants’ removal from society,” Dist. Atty. Erik Nasarenko said in a statement.
The foursome were charged in connection with an elaborate May 25, 2025, heist in which burglars broke into Dr. Conkey’s Candy and Coffee Shop in Simi Valley through the roof, used ladders and ropes to propel down, blacked out surveillance cameras and stole cash from a safe. They then spent hours boring a hole through a wall into the adjacent 5-Star Jewelry & Watch Repair, where they broke into another safe and made off with jewelry, bullion, cash and heirlooms belonging to the store’s customers.
Prosecutors said the defendants planned the crime, buying rope at Home Depot and casing the businesses days before the heists.
Jewelry store owner Jonathan Youssef has said the contents of the safe, which were not insured, represented the life’s work of his father, Jacoub Youssef, who emigrated from Egypt to the United States in the early 1970s. He estimated the store lost between $2 million and $2.5 million in cash and inventory. The elder Youssef had hoped to soon retire but put those plans on hold after the burglary.
Ibarra, Lara and Mejía-Machuca on Jan. 21 pleaded guilty to felony counts of conspiracy to commit commercial burglary and possession of stolen property. Trujillo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess stolen property.
All four defendants admitted special allegations, including excessive loss exceeding $1 million, theft or damage committed in concert with others and that the manner in which the crimes were carried out demonstrated planning, sophistication and professionalism.
Ibarra and Mejía-Machuca also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit commercial burglary and felony vandalism in connection with a separate burglary at Simi Valley Pawn Brokers on May 23, 2025.
Times staff writer Andrew Campa contributed to this report.
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