Carlos Gabriel Aranguren-Mayora, the man accused of entering the bedroom window of a sleeping couple and holding them at gunpoint in Aurora, was involved in two other alleged crimes this past summer, one of them involving a former girlfriend whom he is alleged to have terrorized. 

He is one of 10 men arrested by the Aurora police and tagged as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Court records show that Aranguren-Mayora entered the country illegally on Aug. 30, 2023 and was apprehended by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso. 

By mid-December, he was in Colorado, where he was arrested by the Aurora Police and eventually charged in Adams County with menacing and criminal mischief. On Jan. 16, 2024, Aranguren-Mayora was released on a $1,500 bond. 

The alleged domestic violence involving his girlfriend happened at The Edge at Lowry apartment complex at 12th and Dallas in Aurora, where she lived. The incident rolled over a period of two days, April 7 and 8 this year, according to the arrest affidavit.

The events of early April scared her so much, she fled to a hotel to get away from Aranguren-Mayora, according to court documents.

In the domestic violence incident, the suspect is alleged to have chased the woman with a pistol, broken her windshield with a rock, threatened to kill her and busted in her front door, according to court records. 

Aranguren-Mayora was in court on Wednesday for the home invasion charge, as well as for the domestic violence charge and for a third incident, in which police said he stole nearly $18,000 worth of high-end sunglasses.

The slightly-built 23-year-old appeared in Arapahoe County court in an orange jumpsuit and listened to arguments in his evidentiary hearing through a Spanish-speaking interpreter. 

He often looked around at the proceedings and appeared to be irritated by cuffs and chains, which bound his ankles. He wore handcuffs that restrained his arms to his sides by a chain wrapped around his midsection. 

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney James Quinn found that there was enough evidence to bind Aranguren-Mayora over for trial. 

The hearing’s sole witness, Aurora Police detective Adam Price, said that the defendant and another man walked into the Sunglass Hut at 6155 South Main Street in the Southland shopping center on May 13 and began trying on pairs of sunglasses before they opened their backpacks and “started loading” sunglasses inside.

The store clerk ran to block the suspects from leaving through the front door, but surveillance video showed the defendant shove her aside before the two suspects fled in a blue sedan with Idaho license plates. 

Aranguran-Mayora was apprehended five days later. He was identified, Price testified, through surveillance video, by the vehicle and by a tattoo on the top of his left hand, which he said looked like roses. 

Price also testified that the two suspects tried to enter the store on May 12 the day before, but a different store clerk saw their backpacks and locked the door before they could get inside. 

The defendant’s attorney, Andres Guevera, argued that the 51 missing pairs of sunglasses were never recovered and questioned whether Price had the right person, and whether the detective was clear on exactly what the identifying left-hand tattoo actually looked like. 

Still, Quinn, the judge, determined that the surveillance video from May 13 and the fact that Aranguren-Mayora was in the same blue sedan with Idaho plates on May 18 were enough to move the case forward.

When Guevera was asked about his client’s alleged connection with TdA, he said that he could not comment.

The defendant will be in court on Nov. 12 for an evidentiary hearing on the armed home invasion incident for which he faces a theft charge of an item worth $5 to $20,000, for allegedly stealing a woman’s vehicle, two counts of second-degree burglary and four counts of felony menacing.