SAN ANTONIO – Three San Antonio teenagers arrested in connection with the robbery of a Northside ISD student have also been tied to a similar incident two weeks earlier, according to arrest warrants obtained by KSAT.
Records show the following suspects all remain in custody on multiple charges at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center:
Recommended Videos
- Amir Notario, 17
- Omar Timothy John Saenz, 18
- Damian Zertuche, 18
‘You’re talking s---?’
San Antonio police officers were dispatched just after 3:30 p.m. on May 18 at a Circle K convenience store in the 9800 block of Potranco Road, near Stevens High School.
A Northside Independent School District spokesperson told KSAT at the time that a Stevens High School student was the victim of the off-campus assault.
According to a police report obtained by KSAT, the 18-year-old student was on his way back to campus when Notario, Saenz and Zertuche — who are former Stevens High School students — confronted him.
“What’s up? You’re talking s---?” Notario told the student, according to the report.
The student told police he saw one of the three suspects “pull a gun from his waistband and display it.”
“Give me everything you got,” Notario told the victim.
“I don’t have anything on me,” the student told Notario, according to SAPD.
The student told investigators one of the suspects then pistol-whipped him in the face. At some point, police said the suspects stopped the alleged assault and walked away from the student “for some unknown reason.”
According to the report, the victim gathered himself and began walking back to campus. Moments later, a friend of the victim saw him, helped him talk to school staff and call SAPD.
Investigators saw the victim’s nose was swollen “a little,” had a tissue inside a nostril due to “bleeding” and had a swollen lip following the alleged attack.
SAPD, with the assistance of Northside ISD police officers and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), tracked down Notario, Saenz and Zertuche at a nearby apartment complex and took them into custody.
According to Bexar County court records, separate grand juries indicted Notario and Saenz Tuesday on aggravated robbery (first-degree felony) and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (second-degree felony) charges in connection with the May 18 incident.
Suspects’ possible connection to similar crime
A police report and arrest warrant obtained by KSAT show Notario, Saenz and Zertuche may have been involved with a separate aggravated robbery case on May 4 at the same convenience store.
In the initial police report, SAPD said a 17-year-old Stevens High School student went off campus during his lunch break and walked to the Circle K convenience store in the 9800 block of Potranco Road to get snacks.
At approximately 12:45 p.m., the 17-year-old student was approached by the three suspects. The victim told investigators that he used to consider Zertuche a “close friend.”
According to the student, Zertuche “had a firearm in his right hand” and was “pointing it towards the ground.”
“I’ma need your bag,” Zertuche allegedly told the victim. “Give me everything.”
“Just leave me alone,” the victim told Zertuche, the report states.
According to the warrant, Saenz struck the student in the face with a pistol. The victim told police that Zertuche and Saenz began going through his backpack. The student said Zertuche and Saenz “stole his gold chain, ring, sunglasses, phone charger and wallet” while Notario served as the suspects’ eyes and ears.
When people approached the store, Notario notified Saenz and Zertuche. All three then fled the scene on foot, investigators said.
The student went back to school before heading home and reporting the incident to police, the warrant states.
Court records show Notario, Saenz and Zertuche were each charged with aggravated robbery and engaging in organized criminal activity. Both charges are considered first-degree felonies.
One suspect’s alleged connection to multiple mall robberies
Zertuche was also indicted Tuesday on an aggravated robbery charge, Bexar County court records show. However, the indictment came on an unrelated incident — one of two separate aggravated robberies he was connected to one day before his May 18 arrest.
According to an SAPD affidavit that detailed one alleged May 17 robbery, Zertuche approached a 17-year-old boy shopping at North Star Mall and “forcefully removed” a necklace the victim wore. Officers said Zertuche also “assaulted” the 17-year-old, brandished a firearm and later fled the scene.
Records show a Bexar County grand jury indicted Zertuche in connection with the North Star Mall robbery charge.
In the second May 17 incident, San Antonio police said its officers were dispatched just after 4:30 p.m. to Ingram Park Mall on a robbery in progress call. The victim, a 16-year-old boy, told officers that a male — later identified as Zertuche — “snatched chains” from around his neck and “pointed a gun at him,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by KSAT.
The victim called SAPD after Zertuche fled on foot, police said.
After his arrest in connection with the May 18 robbery, documents show Zertuche confessed to committing the North Star Mall robbery to investigators. On May 19, the North Star Mall victim identified Zertuche to police in a photo lineup.
Zertuche was later identified as the suspect connected to the Ingram Park Mall incident by the victim and a witness on May 20, records indicate. To date, Zertuche has not been indicted in connection with the Ingram Park Mall robbery, records show.
Court records and a Bexar County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson confirmed Thursday to KSAT that Zertuche has also not been indicted on the May 18 aggravated robbery charge.
Zertuche’s combined bond for all five felony charges (four counts of aggravated robbery and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity) was set at $625,000.
During a July 1 hearing, Zertuche’s defense team asked a Bexar County judge to reduce his six-figure bond amount. Court documents show the defense’s request was denied.
In the courtroom
All of Notario and Saenz’s cases have been assigned to Judge Kristina Escalona in Bexar County’s 186th Criminal District Court. Zertuche’s five charges will be heard before Judge Frank Castro in Bexar County’s 399th Criminal District Court.
As of Friday, Notario is the lone suspect who is expected to appear in a courtroom later this month. Records show he has a hearing tentatively scheduled for July 20.
More related coverage of this story on KSAT: