Thieves — donning clown masks — steal jewelry from Florida widow’s home, deputies say
Suspects wearing clown masks broke into a recently widowed woman’s home in Orange County while she was sleeping and stole $40,000 worth of jewelry, according to deputies.
Melissa Martinez, who had worked as the victim’s caregiver, Shakira Rivera Colon, Jaydie Cintron Mayoral and Nelson Cruz Medina were arrested last week on charges of home invasion robbery and grand theft, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said. Martinez and Cruz Medina also face charges of dealing in stolen property and false verification of ownership for pawning the jewelry they stole.
The trio of women was arrested and booked into the Polk County Jail on Jan. 4. Cruz Medina was arrested in Orange County on January 5.
According to Martinez’s arrest warrant, the victim was asleep in her bedroom in the early hours of Dec. 1 when a man wearing a ski mask shattered her door into pieces with a sledgehammer. He was accompanied by a woman wearing a clown mask.
The victim told detectives that she tried to call 911 but that the man snatched her cellphone from her hands. She then got on the floor and began praying while trying not to make eye contact with the thieves. “Please God, please God,” she said.
The man went through her room and closet until he found a safe, which he tried to smash open with the sledgehammer. In the meantime, his accomplice wearing the clown mask patted the victim on the back and told her “everything is going to be OK,” according to the warrant.
When detectives arrived to the Cypress Springs home, they noticed that the front door was not damaged, and the victim’s daughter told them that Martinez hadn’t returned a spare key to the house. Nearby surveillance footage showed four suspects carrying a heavy item to a car outside the home.
Further investigation revealed that Martinez had pawned the victim’s 14K gold necklace, a 14K ring with three diamonds on it, a 10K bracelet and a 14K pendant hours after the robbery. Cellphone data shows she was on the scene of the robbery, detectives say.
Martinez remained behind bars as of Monday afternoon, Orange County jail records show.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 8:41 PM.
