A woman who publicly urged her eldest son to turn himself in to police following a robbery spree said she did so because another son linked to the same crimes had been beaten earlier.
Ruby Santistevan, 52, said she had worried that police would shoot her son Manuelito Santistevan, 26, because they believed he was involved in 23 robberies in nine Denver-area cities and counties attributed to the “Hooded Safe Bandits.”
She asked the media to witness Manuelito’s capture so authorities wouldn’t beat him like she says they did her younger son, Roman Santistevan, 23, when he was arrested in Greeley at his girlfriend’s house, she said Thursday.
“I believe they are using scare tactics on Roman,” she said. “I know they beat him up.”
Rene Vonder Haar, spokeswoman for the FBI, which has spearheaded the robbery-spree investigation, said she is not aware of any police- brutality allegation in the case.
“I have not heard one iota about that,” she said.
Roman Santistevan is being held at the Denver County Jail on $300,000 bail for investigation of robbery and kidnapping. He and Ishmael Mosely, 24, have been charged in connection with robberies at a McDonald’s and Wendy’s and will face other robbery charges, according to the Denver district attorney’s office.
Vonder Haar said Roman and his brother face possible federal criminal charges in connection with the robbery spree.
In a jailhouse interview with 9News broadcast Thursday, Manuelito Santistevan denied he belongs to a gang and said he had no part in any robberies.
He told the TV station that he nearly turned himself in about noon Wednesday but that he was frightened by the large number of police and FBI agents around his mother’s house.
Ruby Santistevan said that when Manuelito eventually turned himself in early Thursday, she was relieved.
“I have some color in my face,” she said.
Santistevan said her sons have been in trouble before, but she doesn’t believe either of them was involved in the recent robbery spree.
“As old as they are, they attended school with me,” she explained.
Both of them are hard workers who earned GEDs, she said.
Santistevan said it was tough raising her sons after her husband died 22 years ago.
“I was a single mother,” she said. “I did my best.”
Other family members said Manuel Santistevan, her husband, had moved to California with the boys after she filed for divorce.
His sister, Donna Santistevan of Alamosa, said Ruby Santistevan’s attorney mailed him a letter at the time indicating she would contest custody of the boys. The day her brother got the letter, he drank alcohol until he asphyxiated on his own vomit, Donna Santistevan said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
