QuickTake:

Jesson Quintero is one of the seven people charged in a burglary that police see as key to their investigation into a string of crimes targeting homeowners of Asian descent.

A Lane County Circuit Court judge Monday, Jan. 5, authorized an arrest warrant for a man charged in connection with burglaries police say targeted Asian households after he failed to appear in court.

Judge Karrie K. McIntyre ordered the arrest of 28-year-old Jesson Quintero after he did not show up for his 35-day call, a pretrial conference scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Quintero is one of seven defendants charged in circuit court with first-degree burglary, conspiracy and first-degree aggravated theft in connection to an October burglary in north Eugene.

The arrests came after some 21 burglaries connected to an organized group or groups dating back to late 2023, most of which involved homeowners of Asian descent, according to Eugene police.

Six of the defendants, including Quintero, were released from Lane County Jail in late October after posting $10,000 bail and signing release agreements promising to obey court orders.

But after Quintero failed to appear Monday, McIntyre ordered a bench warrant for his arrest and set bail at $50,000. His defense attorney, Hannah Silverman, told the judge that she had no information about her client at this time.

In a November court filing, Silverman said Quintero had been staying in California after his release and was struggling to return to Lane County for hearings because of financial limitations, relying on family and friends for support.

At the time, Silverman said her client had “remained in good contact” with her office and had the technology needed to appear remotely in court, as he was expected to Monday. 

In November, federal prosecutors opened their own cases against the seven suspects, alleging that Colombian national Derinson Martinez-Grandes rented housing for a crew that burglarized homes primarily belonging to Asian business owners in Eugene, Salem, and Auburn, Washington, in early October. 

Quintero is not named in the federal indictment. Martinez-Grandes and William Estiven Rodriguez-Gaviria are the only two alleged co-conspirators currently named in U.S. District Court. 

Some of the defendants had been taken into Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody during the local and federal investigations.

Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as metro editor, senior news editor and editor in chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.