SANTA CRUZ — A felon with a rap sheet unfurling again many years pleaded not responsible this week to greater than a dozen costs stemming from the takedown of an unlawful Watsonville cockfighting operation.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace arrested Brett Miller, 58, and Angie Gonzalez, 21, after serving a search warrant on property off rural Ranport Street in Watsonville. The pair instantly posted bail and felony costs out of the Santa Cruz County District Legal professional’s Workplace had been delayed till Wednesday. Gonzalez additionally has pleaded not responsible to costs.
Suspecting that a cockfighting operation had been ongoing for years, detectives on Feb. 16 found a hoop on the property sometimes allegedly used for fights, together with about 200 chickens, each roosters and hens. There additionally had been a number of dozen cages for the roosters. With the assistance of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Monterey County, a number of grownup canines and puppies, all emaciated and affected by a number of well being issues, had been seized, in keeping with the Sheriff’s Workplace.
Detectives additionally gathered firearms together with assault rifles and a drum journal, in addition to different high-capacity magazines.
Miller, recognized within the 80s and 90s as a infamous escape artist after breaking out of police custody a number of instances, has been charged in his newest case with felony possession of an assault weapon, weapon serial quantity tampering, 5 counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful ammunition possession. He additionally faces misdemeanor costs of possessing gamecock “gaffs or slashers,” possession of gamecock for preventing, cockfighting, sustaining an animal in a confined house, animal negligence and canine tethering. Gonzalez has been charged with felony possession of an assault weapon, weapon serial quantity tampering and cruelty to animals, plus misdemeanors of possessing gamecock “gaffs or slashers,” sustaining an animal in a confined house, animal negligence and canine tethering.
Miller was launched from federal jail in 2011 after serving a sentence for robbing two Merced County banks in 1992 and for being a profession felony in possession of a firearm, in keeping with Sentinel archives. Amongst his earliest native crimes, Miller was arrested for his involvement in a 1984 felony extortion conspiracy concentrating on Watsonville’s then-prominent agribusiness household, the Resetars. On the time of his arrest, Miller was needed on warrants out of Monterey and San Bernardino counties and Watsonville and in reference to a kidnapping and theft scheme geared toward a financial institution supervisor.