Man reportedly gives woman ride to Whatcom and ends up getting carjacked by her brother
A man who picked up a woman to give her a ride to Whatcom County, reportedly was carjacked at gunpoint hours later by her brother after running her around town.
The Ferndale Police Department booked Jimmy Raymond Abitia, 27, into Whatcom County Jail Friday, March 18.
Whatcom County Superior Court records show Abitia was charged Wednesday, March 16, with first-degree robbery, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, theft of a motor vehicle and second-degree theft, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Ferndale Police had been seeking Abitia to speak to him as one of two witnesses as part of the investigation into Jose Esquivel Hernandez’s death on Jan. 23. Miguel Miranda previously was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Hernandez’s death, but police said they were looking to speak to Abitia and Michael Archouletta as witnesses in the case.
Detectives have spoken to Abitia regarding that investigation, city of Ferndale spokesperson Sherry DeJong told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
Shortly after midnight Sunday, March 13, police were contacted for the report of an armed robbery in the 1900 block of Washington Street in Ferndale, court documents show.
According to court documents, the victim told the officer:
▪ He was shopping the morning of Saturday, March 12, at the Safeway in Arlington when he met Abitia’s sister, whom he did not previously know. The victim agreed to give the woman a ride to Ferndale.
▪ Once they arrived in Ferndale, the victim drove the woman to four or five different locations, including houses and apartments. They would wait outside the locations for several hours, and nobody would come to the door. The woman said they were likely at her grandfather’s funeral.
▪ The woman also had the victim stop several times so she could use wifi in an effort to reach people, and the victim offered to let her use his phone, but she kept declining.
▪ The victim eventually took the woman to the entrance of a trailer park, and while they were waiting there, a man, whom the woman identified as her brother and later identified as Abitia, got in the back of the car.
▪ Abitia directed the victim to drive and had him stop at the entrance to VanderYacht Park, where Abitia cocked a gun and pointed it at the victim’s head. Abitia told the victim to give him everything he had, including his keys.
▪ Abitia asked the victim if he thought he was joking and then fired a round into the backseat of the car on the floor.
▪ The victim surrendered his keys and wallet and his phone was already in the car, and Abitia told him to get out and not call the police or they would know.
▪ The victim ran off into a field and eventually knocked on a door to get help, as Abitia and the woman drove off.
The victim told police that he had $1,200 cash and his debit card in his wallet and that the woman had seen him enter the code to his phone all day, according to court documents.
Police later learned from the victim that a cash app on the victim’s phone had been accessed without his permission by an account with the username “Jimmy Abitia” and the cash tag “$20gangster,” and three transactions for a total of $247.54 had been made, documents state. The victim also reported there had been multiple attempts to use his debit card.
On March 15, the victim reported he believed Abitia was the brother of a man he had met while in prison, and showed police a Facebook account he believed belonged to Abitia, according to documents.
Court records show Abitia has previous convictions for assault, theft, malicious mischief, bail jumping and possession of a controlled substance in Whatcom County.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 9:12 AM.
