Augustine Bobby Ortega entered a plea of not guilty Monday to a string of almost a dozen “door-kick burglaries” in Goodyear, Maricopa County prosecutors said.
His next scheduled court date is Aug. 6.
Ortega, 24, was arrested along with Jimmy D. Guzman, 36, in early June.
Ortega barricaded himself inside a house in the 1500 block of East Fillmore Street, a few blocks south of Interstate 10, after he was discovered there by the U.S. Marshals Service, said Lisa Kutis, a Goodyear police spokeswoman, in a prior interview with the View.
Several items believed to have been stolen in the burglaries were recovered at the house, including electronics, weapons and victims’ identification documents, Kutis added.
The arrests came four days after a high-speed car pursuit May 31 in which Ortega managed to escape.
The pursuit began on eastbound I-10 with speeds exceeding 110 mph, police said.
It ended near 16th and Portland streets, just south of I-10 in Phoenix, when the vehicle crashed into a home and two men ran away on foot, officers said.
Police matched a description of the vehicle, a green Dodge Dakota pickup truck, to reports of about a dozen door-kick burglaries that began in January.
Ortega was booked in a Maricopa County jail on multiple charges, including burglary, aggravated assault, theft and unlawful flight, booking records show.
Ortega was previously released from prison in November 2012 after serving a nearly six-year stretch for aggravated assault.
Rachel Trott can be reached by email at rtrott@westvalleyview.com or on Twitter @byracheltrott.