Police arrested three men Wednesday on suspicion that they are
responsible for 41 hotel robberies, including two in Costa Mesa,
which occurred a span of seven months.
Officials from both the Orange County and Los Angeles County
sheriff's departments, along with members of the Anaheim Police
Department arrested the men following tips received Tuesday.
Robbers have hit mid-size hotels in an area from San Diego to
Bakersfield. Police have connected the robberies through surveillance
tapes and a pattern the thieves use, said Orange County Sheriff's
Department spokesman Jim Amormino.
At a news conference Tuesday, Anaheim Police showed pictures of
two men they were seeking.
Mickey McMahan, 28, David Martinez, 21, and Marques Taylor, 22,
have been arrested, said L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy Luis Castro.
The men are from the L.A. area, Amormino said. One was arrested at
a gas station, the others at their homes, he said.
Police are not releasing the home towns of the suspects because
the investigation is ongoing, Castro said.
Taylor never appeared in surveillance tapes, Amormino said.
Martinez and Taylor are being held on $100,000 bail. McMahan is being
held on $182,000 due to previous warrants for his arrest, Castro
said.
In each robbery, a man with a mustache wearing a baseball cap,
displays a handgun and demands cash from a clerk. A second man -- who
is younger and thinner -- sometimes assists in the robbery, police
said. Neither makes an effort to conceal his appearance during the
robbery.
In May, two armed men robbed a Residence Inn at 881 West Baker St.
in Costa Mesa.
More recently, a hotel robbery occurred Sept. 5 at the Best
Western at 2642 Newport Blvd.
