The suspect, identified in court records as Kyle Desterke, was charged with arson and vandalism, both felonies. He is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, court records show.

According to police, Desterke is a former Tesla employee who was fired last year. He allegedly showed up to the factory in Fremont shortly after midnight on May 21 with two Molotov cocktails. The employee whose van was torched told officers he was taking a nap inside when he was startled awake by shattered glass and a fire. The man escaped the van without injury.

Police said Desterke is also a suspect in a vandalism incident a week prior in which two dozen cars in the Tesla parking area had their tires slashed. No charges have been filed in connection with that incident, records show.

Desterke was identified as a suspect based on a license plate reader’s capture of a Honda registered to him leaving the scene. He confessed during a police interview but was “adamant” that he believed the van was unoccupied at the time, police said in court papers.

His next court date has been set for June 14.

His final trip came on March 5, when Safi and a friend allegedly got into it with an employee there, and drove down the street to another car repair place. But according to police, they were being tailed. The employee, identified in court records as 25-year-old Sylvester Carver, allegedly followed them in a black Tesla, waited for an opportune moment and riddled their Toyota with bullets from an automatic weapon.

Safi suffered nine gunshot wounds, including two to the head, but shot back during an initial exchange of gunfire with Carver, police say. He spent days in the hospital before being declared dead. Authorities allege that Carver fired 18 times into the Toyota, first firing about 13 shots, then firing an additional four to five times after the Toyota had crashed.

Carver is now being held at Santa Rita Jail without bail, facing charges of murdering Safi and attempting to murder his friend. At the time of the crime, he was out of jail awaiting trial in two gun-related felony cases. One, from 2020, charged him with possessing a loaded pistol. Another, from last year, accused him of brandishing a firearm at a person after a car crash, court records show.

Safi’s death appears to be all because of an Audi, according to police. He reportedly took the vehicle to ASCO Auto Body — which has a Yelp rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars — but wasn’t happy with how things turned out. The day of the shooting, he and Carver reportedly argued and cursed at each other, prompting Safi to leave.

Carver was identified as a suspect through video surveillance, multiple witness statements and a police interview with the shop owner, who told police Carver was the only one of his employees who matched the shooter’s description. But the owner also allegedly called a man named Keion Bolds after the shooting, and it was Bolds who police allege drove Carver from Fremont to Richmond, where Carver was tracked down and arrested, according to court records.

Bolds has not been charged in connection with the shooting. But police raided his Hayward home on March 8, and allegedly found a loaded gun with an illegal switch to make it fully automatic, two ounces of cocaine, roughly six pounds of marijuana and scales and baggies indicative of drug dealing. Bolds denied possession of the drugs, but has been charged with having cocaine for sale, possessing a gun as a felon and a misdemeanor count of child endangerment based on the gun being “quickly hidden behind a dresser and covered with children’s books,” police said in court records.

As for Carver, after the shooting he allegedly returned to the auto body shop, told his co-workers that the Tesla belonged to a customer and asked them to remove a bumper that had a hole from a bullet reportedly fired by Safi’s gun. Carver is next due in court on May 29 to enter a plea, records show.

Last month, Alameda County prosecutors charged three men and a woman with breaking into the Lemonnade Dispensary in Union City last January and stealing $54,000 worth of cannabis products. The charges include commercial burglary and organized retail theft in concert, court records show.

The four were identified because one suspect — the son of a local tow truck company owner — dropped his cellphone at the scene, which police later used to identify the Instagram accounts of other involved parties. Shortly after the burglary, one of the other suspects posted packaged cannabis that appeared similar to some of the stolen items, police said.

The 13 suspects used a crowbar to pry open a door to the dispensary and ran inside, clearing out whatever they could within a few minutes, before running to getaway cars. There were six other dispensary burglaries in Union City around the same time, and some of the suspects are also under investigation for similar burglaries in Contra Costa County, authorities said.

One of the locations, on the 4400 block of Appian Way, has been the subject of at least four separate undercover operations since 2018, and each one resulted in either a “masseuse” offering sexual services to an undercover cop, or a police raid where incriminating evidence was seized. The other location, on the 400 block of Appian Way, had also been the subject of a 2021 prostitution investigation, according to police and court records.

This latest investigation was twofold; police raided both locations back in February, then followed it up by going to the Hayward home of a person believed to be involved in the operation of one of the brothels, where police seized more than $9,000 in cash, authorities said.

Both brothels were raided after undercover officers went to both locations and were allegedly solicited by sex workers. In one case, a woman there actually took the undercover officer’s hands and placed them on her breasts, then demanded a $60 tip for his massage, authorities said.

In 2022, police seized an assault rifle from the parlor on the 4400 block of Appian Way, after a similar undercover investigation. In 2021, a masseuse at that same location offered sexual services to an undercover officer, who declined them. In 2018, an undercover officer was handed a condom and quoted a price for sexual intercourse there, authorities said.

The man suspected of running that massage parlor has ties to other suspected brothels in the Bay Area, and is under investigation for allegedly promoting prostitution in Texas, authorities said.

The parlor on the 400 block of Appian Way was also investigated, in 2021, after a man reported that a masseuse performed a sex act after a massage, which he told police he didn’t want to happen, authorities said.

The four defendants — three women and a man — were charged with a mix of retail theft, identity theft and mail theft charges, including multiple felony and misdemeanor counts. All four have active arrest warrants and have not yet shown up in court, records show.

The defendants include a 21-year-old Richmond woman — who police say was the ringleader — as well as her mother and her mother’s fiance, court records show. The investigation started in March 2023, when the 21-year-old woman and a female accomplice allegedly stole $10,000 worth of sunglasses from a business in Concord’s Sunvalley Mall.

The 21-year-old woman was identified through surveillance pictures and arrested just a week after the mall theft, in a car full of stolen items. Police tied many of the items to a sporting goods store, and were contacted by a business owner who claimed the duo stole a bunch of beanies from his store, after police put out a news release announcing the arrests.

The 21-year-old woman was later released from jail, but before she was, she allegedly called her boyfriend to complain that if her mother had been able to follow her instructions, the cops never would have arrested them. After her release, police used a tracking device and other surveillance techniques to follow members of the theft ring, and documented them going to 93 stores around Northern California, from May to July 2023, authorities said.

Prosecutors didn’t believe Faiz Munshi’s story, and have charged him with three felonies, including contacting a minor for a sexual offense and two counts of attempted lewd act on a minor. Police say the charges stem from a sting involving an undercover cop who posed as a 13-year-old girl and engaged in inappropriate chats with Munshi.

He was arrested after allegedly showing up to a location in San Ramon for a meeting with the “girl.”

But while police were ready for Munshi, they weren’t quite ready for what he told them next. Munshi — who works for an AI company in San Francisco — allegedly claimed that he believed the “girl” was actually a malfunctioning bot, and that he wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on, authorities said.

Walnut Creek police said in court papers that after an undercover officer set up a dating profile on Whisper in the name and likeness of a teen girl, Munshi reached out and messaged: “Hopefully you are not under 18. As long as you keep telling me you are 18. I don’t want to know.”

Eventually, though, the officer told Munshi they were a 13-year-old girl, and Munshi allegedly said, “Hmm young but if you swear to secrecy then it’s fine,” then later discussed whether they would “jump into sex,” authorities say.

Munshi was arrested in San Ramon on Oct. 26, 2023. Prosecutors just recently filed a three-count felony complaint against him. He has bailed out of jail and remains free while the charges are pending, court records show.

Robert Leigh Moore, 33, of Oakland, has been charged with murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the Feb. 3 killing of Aristeo Zambrano, a former United Farm Workers advocate, who was killed inside the auto shop he owned and operated.

Police say Moore was angry with Zambrano over a transaction, possibly related to a car battery that was found out of place, just a few feet from Zambrano’s body.

Zambrano’s body was discovered by customers on the morning of Feb. 3, inside Bay City Alternators on International Boulevard near 88th Avenue in East Oakland.

Police say the first clue was the car battery, which was in an unusual place. They later identified Moore as a suspect through video surveillance and by identifying the car Moore allegedly fled to after the shooting.

The security footage showed Zambrano’s killer yelling from the counter, then reaching into his sweatshirt, pulling a gun and firing, police say.

After identifying Moore as a suspect, police recovered surveillance footage from the Oakland apartment complex where Moore lived. It showed him leaving his home a few minutes before the shooting, carrying what police believe was the battery found near where Zambrano was killed.

The criminal complaint alleges that Moore was convicted in 2020 of battery likely to produce great bodily injury in Contra Costa County, and sentenced to prison. He is being held at Santa Rita Jail without bail, court records show.

Walter Dawydiak, 65, is set to be released next month from USP Lompoc, where he’s serving the six-month sentence. Dawydiak was formally sentenced last year, and must complete a three-year supervised release term after he is out of prison.

Before he was sentenced, Dawydiak wrote a letter of apology to the court. Federal prosecutors accepted his apology, writing in a sentencing memorandum that his regret seems sincere and that he backed up his words with action. Dawydiak, for years, lied to clients about what their cars sold for and pocketed the difference, on top of evading payroll taxes, according to prosecutors.

But after his scheme was discovered, he worked with the federal government to track down exactly how much fraud he was responsible for, which ultimately came out to a restitution tab of roughly $541,864, court records show.

Dawydiak also agreed there were between 100 to 500 victims, but couldn’t be sure due to a lack of record keeping, prosecutors said.

In his apology letter to the court, Dawydiak wrote that he “deeply regret(s)” the harm he caused and that he’s done making excuses for his actions.

In a defense sentencing memo, Dawydiak’s lawyer praised him for building his business, Cars Dawydiak, which started from operating in a small taxi stand to employing 20 people in its Marin County showroom. Ironically, his journey as a businessman started after he was arrested at age 17 for auto theft and turned his life around, his lawyer wrote.

Dawydiak faced a maximum of 20 years in prison for the mail fraud charge and five years for the tax evasion. His business promised clients they’d earn more money working with him than trying to sell a vehicle on their own and offered “complete control” over the price they wanted for their car.

Min Ki Paik, aka James Paik, 63, and his wife, Hye Paik, 60, have both been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and bribing an employee of an agency that receives federal funds, charges that carry up to five years and 10 years in prison, respectively. Both remain out of custody on $50,000 bonds secured at their initial court appearances on Tuesday, records show.

The Paiks are charged with paying cash bribes on four separate occasions from September to October, during their bid to acquire the vacant properties that once housed Pompei’s Grotto and Lou’s Fish Shack, two popular restaurants that announced they were closing last July. They own Nick’s Lighthouse on Taylor Street in San Francisco, and Min Ki Paik allegedly bragged to a port employee that he and his wife own dozens of businesses in the Bay Area, some of which have been placed in the names of his relatives.

The FBI investigation into the Paiks started last May, when a port official came forward alleging Min Ki Paik offered to pay thousands for help securing leases on several restaurant properties. The criminal complaint also alleges that Paik offered a $5,000 bribe to an unnamed realtor who allegedly emailed him back, “James, That is illegal and I will not take part in that.”

Paik allegedly paid the port employee envelopes containing $3,000 in cash on three occasions. As their relationship progressed, the employee introduced Paik to an undercover FBI employee posing as the port official’s co-worker. During one meeting the two allegedly told Paik to save $240,000 over a 10-year period by offering bids on both restaurants that were $2,000 less than the market value and that they were “fast tracking” his lease application, according to the complaint.

Later in that meeting, Hye Paik allegedly paid both the port official and the undercover FBI employee $5,000 in cash, and Min Ki Paik allegedly followed that up with a Nov. 2 text promising more money was on the way once the lease was approved in June 2024.

“Starting 6/1 We will give 10 +5=15. Thanks,” Paik allegedly texted the port employee.

The Paiks’ next court date has been set for Jan. 3.

Justin Petty, 41, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, who also ordered Petty to undergo five years of supervised release after his prison term. Petty pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and heroin.

Prosecutors say that in 2016, Petty concealed drugs, lighters, grinding stones, cellphones, screwdrivers and electronics inside seemingly legitimate commissary packages containing fudge brownies and Oatmeal Creme Pies. Authorities later learned Petty was working with Aryan Brotherhood members in High Desert and Sacramento prisons.

The crimes were discovered in part thanks to a wiretap operation aimed at the Aryan Brotherhood’s leadership. The result of the wiretap came in 2019, when two dozen Aryan Brotherhood members and associates, including Petty, were charged with racketeering and other serious offenses. Unlike Petty, who faced only drug conspiracy charges, several of the defendants face multiple murder conspiracy counts, making them eligible for death sentences, though federal prosecutors still haven’t decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

Petty’s attorney argued in a sentencing brief that Petty struggled during his youth with being an “unsupervised youth with no male figure in his life,” and that he became “doomed by drug addiction.”

“By the age of 12, Mr. Petty was drinking and smoking marijuana. By age 13, Mr. Petty was using methamphetamine and graduating to cocaine and heroin,” lawyer Dina Santos wrote in court papers. After prison, Santos added, Petty plans to move out of California to be with family and stay “away from his old life and his old ways.”

Santos added that while he was incarcerated at the Nevada County Jail — where Petty was transferred after a co-defendant found evidence Sacramento jail staff were illegally recording attorney/client visits in the Sacramento jail — Petty “completed 72 courses of education, has earned over 35 certificates, and has grown even more talented in his art skills.”