In August, the actions of a quick-thinking Sully Station teen-ager and her brother resulted in the arrest of four men from Manassas. On Dec. 4 in Fairfax County General District Court, they were all sentenced.
The incident occurred Aug. 6, around 12:26 a.m., in the 14700 block of Basingstoke Loop in Centreville's Sully Station community. According to police, the girl, 16, was out walking with a friend when she saw a group of suspicious men inside a neighbor's vehicle. When she called out to them, they fled — carrying items from the vehicle.
The girl then went inside her house and told her brother, and he got into his car, followed the men and was able to obtain their license-tag number. His sister then called police and gave them the information. A lookout was broadcast, and police Officer Gene Bork of the Fair Oaks District Station spotted the car and stopped it.
Police identified the suspects — all from Manassas — as Santos Viera, 20, of 9641 Aspen Place; Emerson Rivera, 18, of 242 Manassas Drive; Ezequiel Martinez, 20, of 926 George St.; and Javier Aguilar, 18, of 234 Byrd Drive. Each was charged with grand larceny and vehicle tampering.
They appeared in court Dec. 4, at which time their vehicle-tampering charges were dropped and their grand-larceny charges were reduced to petit larcenies, which are misdemeanors.
Judge J. Conrad Waters then gave each man a 90-day, suspended jail sentence. He also ordered Martinez to spend four days in the sheriff's Weekender Work Program; Viera, Aguilar and Rivera are to spend six days each in that program.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs