A local transient with a long criminal history was arrested Tuesday and charged with breaking in to a downtown nightclub and stealing money from the cash register, according to court documents.
Davey Naranjo, 36, was identified by Aspen police officers because of previous contacts and because he showed up at the Pitkin County Jail 15 minutes before he was recorded allegedly burglarizing Bootsy Bellows nightclub wearing the same outfit he wore when surveillance video recorded him inside the business, according to an affidavit filed in Pitkin County District Court.
The break-in at Bootsy Bellows, 515 E. Hyman Ave., occurred just after 4 a.m. Friday. Surveillance video showed Naranjo enter the club’s back door — which a manager said had been left open — with a long-sleeve shirt tied around the lower portion of his head, presumably to try and hide his identity, according to the affidavit.
The video shows him open one of the three cash registers, steal $400 from it then use the shirt to wipe the areas he touched. He tried to open the other two registers but was not successful, the affidavit states.
Naranjo then entered the bar again at 4:21 a.m., this time with a sheet over his head that didn’t cover his face and unsuccessfully tried to open the registers a second time, the affidavit states.
In both cases, his face, hair, tattoos and clothing were visible on the video, according to the document.
Naranjo showed up at the jail lobby at 3:44 a.m. Friday looking for his backpack wearing the same clothing he wore in the Bootsy Bellows video, according to the affidavit.
In court Wednesday, Naranjo told District Judge Chris Seldin he’d been using “I.V. drugs for over two months” and that he’s trying to go “cold turkey” so he didn’t want to be released from jail.
Prosecutor Don Nottingham said Naranjo was on parole, which means he could face between four and 12 years in prison if convicted of burglary. Naranjo has been previously convicted of burglary, trespassing, felony menacing, aggravated motor vehicle theft, DUI and other violations. The judge heeded Nottingham’s request to set a $50,000 cash-only bond.
Seldin sentenced Naranjo in January 2018 to 18 months in a prison-alternative program in Garfield County after he pleaded guilty to stealing a car in October 2017. His lawyer at the time said he stole the vehicle because of a “deep-seated phobia of bears” and needed a place to sleep that was safe from them.