ST. GEORGE — A man suspected of breaking into the Utah State Liquor store in Hurricane was arrested early Friday morning after officers found him covered in glass in a parking lot.
The arrest transpired just hours after authorities told the suspect, 29-year-old Josue David Alvarado of Pasadena, California, to leave the parking lot when he was found loitering near the business.
Following the arrest, Alvarado was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility and booked into jail on two third-degree felony charges, including burglary of a non-dwelling and criminal mischief. He also faces a misdemeanor theft charge. The case was filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office Friday.
The incident was reported shortly after 4:30 a.m. when officers were dispatched to the Hurrican liquor store for an alarm activation, according to charging documents filed in 5th District Court.
Officers arrived to find one of the store windows smashed. It appeared to have been struck by a rock they found on the ground next to the damaged window.
While waiting for the manager to arrive with the keys to the store, officers noticed a black baseball cap on the property with the letter “P” on it that was subsequently collected as evidence.
Once the door was unlocked, the building was cleared while patrol officers conducted a canvass of the area. An officer circulating the area noticed a man in the parking lot of a gas station located just down the street from where the break-in took place.
The man was not wearing a shirt and the officer could see the man was “covered in glass shards on his back,” as noted in the report, and also noticed cuts on his arm.
The officer approached and while detaining the suspect, the officer located an identification card issued out of California that identified Alvarado.
While speaking to police, Alvarado said he may or may not have broken the window at the store. Officers recovered two bottles of liquor, one of which was open, during a search of the suspect.
Officers returned to the store with the bottles and verified they were the same brand sold there. Sometime later, while viewing the surveillance footage, officers watched as a suspect matching the description of the man found at the gas station enter the store by climbing through the broken window. Once inside, the suspect grabbed two bottles of the same brand of alcohol later found by police, and then the suspect was seen exiting through the same broken window.
“The person in the video was the same person that the officers had stopped and detained,” noted the officer, adding he was then placed under arrest.
This was Alvarado’s second run-in with authorities in Hurricane. On Thursday evening, the suspect caught the attention of officers when they responded to a loitering call at the same liquor store on Foothills Canyon Drive.
Hurricane Police Officer Dan Raddatz told St. George News that Alvarado had been staying at a condo in the Coral Springs area when he allegedly “started causing problems” and was trespassed from entering the property earlier that same day.
Hours later, Alvarado ended up in the liquor store parking lot shortly after 5:30 p.m., and when officers reportedly found him loitering in the parking lot, they told him to leave but did not arrest him, Raddatz said, since he had not committed any crime that warranted an arrest at that point.
Less than 12 hours later, the suspect was found covered in glass in the gas station parking lot after a break-in was reported at the same liquor store early the next morning.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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