Newman man accused of stealing bee colonies will stand trial

A judge on Friday determined there was sufficient evidence for a Newman man to stand trial accused of stealing nine bee colonies worth at least $2,250 and critical to the agriculture industry.

Pedro Magallon Villafan, 46, is charged with felony grand theft in connection with the theft Jan. 3, according to a news release from the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office.

Authorities said the nine colonies had already been loaded onto a truck when a security guard from a nearby golf course spotted the vehicle and foiled the theft.

The defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains free on bail. Superior Court Judge Linda McFadden scheduled Villafan to return to court April 13 for an arraignment hearing.

Orin Johnson is a second-generation beekeeper from Hughson. He had placed the bees in a rural area of Del Puerto Canyon, southwest of Patterson, in advance of the almond bloom. California almonds are the largest single use of pollinating bees from around the nation.

The numbers are a tiny part of the region’s pollinating bee supply, but a theft would mean the loss of pollination rental fees. Johnson testified in the preliminary hearing that each colony could produce $250 to $300 in rental fees from growers.

Bees help produce almonds, one of the top farm products in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, by carrying pollen to flowers that eventually become nuts. Roughly 1.5 million colonies work the orchards from mid-February to early March before going on to other crops.

Johnson also testified that February and March are peak season for the bees. He said queen bees are growing in January, and the hive is very active and valuable.

In the early hours of Jan. 3, the security guard working at the Diablo Grande Golf & Country Club notified Johnson of the bee theft. Prosecutors said the guard had seen a suspicious vehicle in the area where Johnson kept several bee colonies.

Johnson has told The Modesto Bee that the suspect’s vehicle could have driven off with as many as 60 colonies had the theft not been discovered by the guard, who detained the suspect and called sheriff’s officials.

Testimony in the hearing indicated that Dre Castano of Rank Investigations caught the defendant stealing Johnson’s bee colonies. They were already loaded on the vehicle Villafan had driven onto the property, according to prosecutors.

Villafan told Stanislaus County sheriff’s Deputy Phillip Harris that he cut the fence and was stealing the bees. The prosecutors said Villafan cut a barbed-wire fence, bent it back and loaded the nine wooden boxes of bees.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees argued in the hearing that bee theft is at an all-time high, according to the news release.

“This is a very serious crime and should be treated as such,” she said. “Especially here in Stanislaus County, where agriculture is a significant growth product.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Newman man accused of stealing bee colonies will stand trial."