Chilean national sentenced to 2 years for burglary in Carmel gated community
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — A Chilean national has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to a burglary nearly a year ago at a home in a gated community in Carmel.
Tamara Masiel Ruiz Saldias was sentenced Thursday in Hamilton Superior Court 5 at the judicial center in Noblesville. She was accused of a Feb. 25 burglary at home in the 1100 block of Laurelwood. That’s in a gated community in Carmel off 116th Street west of the Spring Mill Road roundabout.
Ruiz Saldias was one of three Chilean nationals facing theft counts in Hamilton County. Court documents show she was found with found with $3,611.19 in cash, plus jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars. Her sentenced included credit for 480 days already served in jail, which means she’d serve 250 more days if not released early.
Carmel police in 2023 arrested Ruiz Saldias, 36; Jeremy Jorge Jesus Linai Martinez, 19; and Ignacio Antonio Ruiz-Saldias, 29. Their ages were from their time of their arrests.
Hamilton County online jail records showed Martinez as being from Pamona, California, and the Saldiases as being from Los Angeles.
Ignacio Antonio Ruiz-Saldias has also pleaded guilty, although online court records don’t provide any detail. He was charged with burglary and theft. He was set to be sentenced at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 28 in Hamilton Superior Court 5. He remained in the Hamilton County jail in Noblesville on Thursday afternoon. His bond had been set at $800,000.
Linai Martinez faces a possible jury trial in May, according to online court records. He’s charged with burglary and theft, online court records show. He remained in the Hamilton County jail on Thursday afternoon. His bond also had been set at $800,000.
All three were charged in December in Michigan for a series of invasions of mansions and high-end homes. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the three were suspected in eight break-ins after they arrived in the Detroit area on a Feb. 1, 2023, flight from Los Angeles. The FBI has identified the three as members of what’s formally designated the South American Theft Group.
Nessel says the three are connected to eight break-ins from February in Oakland, Wayne, and Kent counties. In Michigan, they are charged with conducting a criminal enterprise, and second-degree home invasion.
Several law enforcement agencies believe the group’s crimes are conducted by “non-citizen, temporary residents from countries in South America who travel to the United States and the state of Michigan specifically in order to conduct these burglaries,” Nessel said. “There are more out there.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
