Mesquite man agrees to plea in case where vehicle was sold to multiple people

LAS CRUCES – Manuel Robles Jr., a Mesquite man accused of selling and attempting to sell the same vehicle to multiple people in 2020, agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge Friday.

Robles was originally charged with one felony count of forgery, one felony count of fraud, one misdemeanor count of attempting to commit forgery and one misdemeanor count of attempting to commit fraud.

According to court documents, Robles, under the assumed name Eric Hernandez, advertised the sale of a gold 1996 Ford Ranger for $2,000 on Craigslist in June 2020. One person showed interest and bought the truck for $1,800. Robles exchanged the vehicle title and a bill of sale for the cash.

The person who bought it later told police that he was supposed to pick up the truck the day after the sale.

Later, another person contacted Robles about purchasing the vehicle.

This second potential buyer happened to be friends with the first buyer and soon the friends realized they were purchasing the same vehicle. The friends later told police that they buy, fix and sell cars together.

An investigation revealed that the truck had a false license plate and was not in fact owned by Robles. The VIN number showed that it was owned by a woman in Kentucky.

The vehicle titles Robles exchanged were also found to be fakes.

After multiple continuances of his court case, Robles agreed to plead guilty to the charge of attempting to commit forgery. The three other charges were dismissed as part of the agreement.

The maximum sentence for such a misdemeanor conviction is one year in prison and a fine of $1,000. If 3rd Judicial District Court Judge Conrad Perea agrees with the deal, Robles will likely serve one year of misdemeanor probation and pay restitution to the victims.

A sentencing hearing will be held at a later date.

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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Mesquite man agrees to plead guilty in case where vehicle was sold to multiple people