Feb. 24 trial set for One Stop Equipment burglary suspect

By Neal Putnam

A trial date of Feb. 24 has been set for a man charged with stealing $2,400 worth of power tools at One Stop Equipment Rental in Ramona during a nighttime burglary.

San Diego resident Matthew Paul Sondag, 39, was ordered to stand trial for conspiracy to commit burglary and burglary in a Nov. 27, 2013, incident in which he and others are suspected of cutting a hole in the fence at 254 Pine St, according to court records.

Ramona substation.FEATUREThe suspect and others who were not named broke the locks off a storage shed and stacked the tools near the hole in the fence around 11 p.m. before taking them off the property. Sheriff’s deputies later recovered the tools.

El Cajon Superior Court Judge Lantz Lewis heard witnesses in a Jan. 7 preliminary hearing and ordered the trial. Sondag was free on bond for a Sept. 8 theft at Home Depot when he allegedly stole tools in Ramona.

Sondag was ordered to stand trial for burglary and petty theft at Home Depot on Nov. 19. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility on $125,000 bail.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Loriann Margerette Martinez, 45, pleaded guilty Jan. 22 to being a felon on jail grounds when she attempted to put money on Sondag’s account at the downtown sheriff’s station. She has a prior theft conviction and the sheriff has banned anyone with a felony from being on jail grounds.

Martinez was also charged with receiving stolen property involving the One Stop Equipment burglary, but Judge Allan Preckel dismissed that charge.

Martinez is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 24 and could get up to a year in jail. She remains at the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility on $45,000 bail.

Others were arrested by sheriff’s deputies for the One Stop burglary, but so far Sondag is the only one who will stand trial.