Four men sentenced to prison time for burglaries targeting Asian business owners

Four men sentenced Tuesday for their roles in a sophisticated burglary ring, stealing from the homes of Asian business owners, selected their targets for a reason, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said. 

The crew “aimed at hardworking Asian American business owners that you knew were hardworking, that you knew spent incredible hours trying to maintain businesses outside of the home,” McShane told one defendant. “And you targeted them for that reason.”

The men — among seven arrested by Eugene police last October — earlier this year pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit interstate transportation of stolen goods in connection with thefts from homes in Eugene, Salem and Auburn, Washington. 

Federal prosecutors also linked the crew to an attempted burglary of a home in Gresham.

A full day of hearings Tuesday, July 7, included a statement from a burglary victim and details about the men involved in the crimes, all Colombian nationals facing what attorneys described as almost-certain deportation after completing their prison sentences.

But with additional targeted burglaries recently and a hidden camouflaged camera reported near a Eugene residence, Asian families in the area continue to be wary, said Jenny Jonak, president of the Asian American Council of Oregon.

Jonak, who attended the sentencing hearings as a spectator, said one local family “was concerned about everybody going to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July, because then it meant nobody would be able to watch their home.“

The council, in a November letter to the court, stated there have been at least 23 reported burglaries of homes belonging to Asian Americans in Eugene and Springfield.

“It’s not usual that we have evidence lined up like this, that we have such a strong case,” Jonak said. “And that’s a little disappointing, in the sense that we know that these crimes are continuing.”

“So, we continue to have to look out for ways in which we can try to prevent more of these,” Jonak added.

Sentencings

Prosecutors made no claims about any of the defendants taking on a leadership role within the group. Factors like differences in criminal history resulted in varying sentences.

Derinson Martinez-Grandas, 34, and William Estiven Rodriguez-Gaviria, 27, were each sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.

Jhon Alexander Quintero, 46, was sentenced to 18 months, with prosecutors citing a 2025 California arrest. 

Steven Alexander Quiroga-Solano, 28, was sentenced to 21 months, as attorneys described a pending criminal case against him in California and also how he was arrested after his pretrial release from the Lane County Jail by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police just north of the United States-Canada border near Vermont. 

Also Tuesday, the men were sentenced in Lane County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to burglaries in Eugene and Salem.

By agreement between state and federal prosecutors, with federal sentences of more than a year, the Circuit Court sentences will run concurrently with the federal sentences. Each man was sentenced in Circuit Court to 10 months in custody after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree burglary and first-degree aggravated theft, with other charges dismissed.

Past and ongoing crimes

Assistant U.S. Attorney William McLaren said Quintero’s California arrest came after police stopped a vehicle “that was seen fleeing a burglary a few days prior,” though McLaren said he didn’t know if any criminal charges had ever been filed in California.

Eugene police executed a search warrant Oct. 9, 2025, at an Airbnb rental home on Skyline Boulevard, leading to the seven arrests that night, and McLaren in court spoke about how the home had a hot tub and room “filled with burglary proceeds.”

Court documents have described a property loss of $69,640.

McLaren also spoke about the ongoing nature of these types of burglaries targeting Asian business owners.

“There are victims within the past weeks and months that fit the same profile,” McLaren said.

Upon sentencing Quintero, McShane, the federal judge, said: “There is a need for a certain kind of deterrence, given this type of conduct seems to be a continuing pattern in the community.”

Remorse and regret

Before being sentenced, each of the four men spoke in court to express remorse and regret for their actions.

Some details about their lives were also provided by defense attorneys and prosecutors. 

Quintero “came to the United States seeking a job to gain finances to contribute to medical bills for his sick mother,” said his attorney Willow Hillman, in the Circuit Court sentencing hearing. 

Hillman also said Quintero was “seeking funds to pay for an upcoming surgery,” describing Quintero as having “significant medical issues.”

“His sons were part of this,” defense attorney Marc Friedman, who represented Quintero for the federal charge, said in court. Friedman previously told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that Quintero was related to two of the men indicted in federal court.

Friedman told the court they “were recruited,” but did not provide additional details.

Quiroga-Solano worked as a day laborer but “it was proposed to him he could get work as a driver if he was willing to come along” for a trip to the Pacific Northwest, his attorney, Jennifer Lang Perkins, said in court.

ICE involvement

Of the seven men arrested, 25-year-old Jhon Alexander Quintero-Cadena is known to have been deported after being released on bond from the Lane County Jail, the FBI has said.

Quintero-Cadena, as well as Jesson Quintero, 28, and Robinson Andres Camacho-Rodriguez, 31, are considered fugitives.

Multiple members of the crew were picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between the time of their release on bail from the Lane County Jail and when a federal complaint was filed in November 2025.

In court Tuesday, McLaren did not directly address the time gap, but said “we worked as fast as we could to get a charge.”

During a Circuit Court sentencing hearing for Rodriguez-Gaviria, his court-appointed defense attorney, Rebecca Davis, said that after his bond was posted “he didn’t make it out of the front doors of the jail before he was tackled and arrested by ICE.”

Davis requested a return of the security bond payment to the person who paid for Rodriguez-Gaviria’s release. Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Geil did not oppose the motion, which was granted by Lane County Circuit Judge Curtis Conover. 

Quiroga-Solano was arrested in Canada after he “paid someone to cross him into the Canadian woods,” according to a sentencing memo filed by prosecutors. 

However, a defense attorney said Quiroga-Solano traveled to Canada “trying to visit his wife and daughter, who live in Ontario, Canada,” according to a court filing written by attorney David Veverka, who wrote that Quiroga-Solano said he planned to return to Lane County. 

Victim’s words

“Nobody deserves to be targeted for who they are. Nobody deserves to be afraid for who they are,” McLaren told the court. 

McLaren spoke about how among the burglary victims, “one family is afraid of reprisal, of being targeted again.” 

None of those who had homes burglarized spoke in court Tuesday, but McLaren read a victim’s statement describing how the burglary affected her and her family. 

“Any Asian parent would love to see their child in a court case as a judge” or other legal professional, the letter began.

Not so much as a victim of crime, she wrote, but “my parents are not disappointed in me.”

“Worse, they are blaming themselves,” she said, describing their reaction as “possibly universal” but also definitely Asian. 

The woman went on to describe a moment of “shock” and how the theft of a designer handbag belied her family’s history, describing the item as “my mom’s first luxury purchase after a decade of recycling two outfits from a now defunct Kmart.”