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Bond agent ordered to forfeit bond

Accused armed robber Jose Victor Gonzalez back in custody

A district court judge ordered a bonding agent on Friday to forfeit a $10,000 bond for an escaped fugitive found in Las Vegas last month.

North Central District Court Judge Richard Hagar said at a court hearing in Minot Friday that he will consider refunding part of the bond after the state has submitted a bill to the court for the cost of extraditing Jose Victor Gonzalez, 28, back to Minot.

Bondsman Derle Marcus testified by phone from Bismarck that he had notified the Ward County Sheriff’s Office twice that Gonzalez was being held in jail in Clark County, Nevada. Last summer, authorities in Nevada told Marcus that Gonzalez was being held on other charges there and they would not release him to Marcus. Marcus thought he would be held there and sent back to North Dakota, but Gonzalez was apparently released and later rearrested in December in Las Vegas and was held on a fugitive warrant from North Dakota.

“He’s lying,” Gonzalez told Hagar during the hearing after hearing Marcus testify. “I called him.”

Gonzalez told the judge that he had been working at a phone kiosk at a mall in North Dakota at one point in the summer of 2017 and claimed he had notified the bonding agent.

Gonzalez was extradited back to North Dakota from Las Vegas on Thursday and made court appearances on various charges on Friday before Hagar.

The most serious charge against him is a charge that he robbed a man at gunpoint on Dec. 29, 2016.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, a man was robbed at gunpoint by two black males between 11th Street and 11th Avenue NW in Minot. The alleged victim sustained a bloody head wound and several small cuts on his hands during the attack. He managed to wrestle the gun away from the gunman and then followed them in his car while he called police. The man identified the gunman as someone called “Zay.” Police also took possession of the semiautomatic pistol allegedly used in the attack.

The alleged victim pointed out the direction the suspect vehicle had gone, but police lost track of it. They arrested Gonzalez shortly afterwards when he was found hiding under a deck at a house in the 2800 block of 1st Avenue NW. Police could not find anyone else at the scene.

Police searched Gonzalez and found methamphetamine in baggies and 30 pills in an unmarked prescription pill bottle. Seven of the pills turned out to be zolpidem tartrate, a Schedule IV drug. They also found marijuana and $1,265 in cash.

For that incident, Gonzalez is charged with robbery, a Class B felony, fleeing from police, a Class C felony, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, both Class C felonies, and felon in possession of a firearm, a Class C felony. The state dropped an aggravated assault charge against him for lack of evidence.

In addition, Gonzalez was wanted on four Class C felony counts of bail jumping, dating back to December 2015, Class C felony possession of a controlled substance, dating back to October 2016, driving with a suspended license, dating back to November 2016, two Class C felony possession of a controlled substance charges, dating back to September 2015.

During a second hearing on Friday afternoon, the state’s attorney’s office asked for no bond or $100,000 cash bond.

“You don’t trust bondsmen anymore?” Hagar asked State’s Attorney Roza Larson.

Gonzalez asked for house arrest or a release that would allow him to work. He said he is working with an attorney in Nevada who is trying to contact an attorney in North Dakota to handle this matter.

“The reason before I wasn’t able to come to court is I didn’t have proper defense,” Gonzalez told the judge. Gonzalez had apparently failed to apply for a court-appointed attorney before and also had failed to make four court appearances in Ward County.

Hagar told him that house arrest or work release might have been an option for him in the past, but no longer.

Hagar set bond at $50,000 cash or $100,000 corporate surety. The $100,000 corporate surety bond should get the attention of a bondsman, Hagar remarked.

A preliminary hearing for Gonzalez is scheduled for Feb. 21 before Judge Todd Cresap. Hagar said he was giving all of the Gonzalez files to Cresap.

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