Victim, defendant speak in court about Stanislaus County bee colony theft

Orin Johnson, a second-generation beekeeper from Hughson, told a judge that his bees have been stolen four times. He said it needs to stop, and a maximum sentence for such a theft is fitting.

“That’s my livelihood that was being attacked,” Johnson said in Stanislaus Superior Court on Tuesday morning.

Pedro Magallon Villafan, the defendant accused of stealing nine bee colonies from Johnson, apologized to Johnson in court. He said he invested all his money into becoming a beekeeper. When most of his bees died, Villafan said he took Johnson’s bees in an act of desperation.

“I know what I did was wrong,” the defendant told the judge Tuesday.

Villafan, 46, of Newman now has to consider whether to enter a plea in the case, which would result in jail time and felony probation along with restitution for any damage in the theft. He is charged with felony grand theft.

Judge Linda McFadden said this is a serious crime that affects the victims and this region’s agricultural industry.

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 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.

Johnson has testified in a preliminary hearing 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 person in the vehicle could have driven off with as many as 60 colonies had the theft not been discovered by the guard, who detained Villafan and called authorities.

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, according to prosecutors. They said Villafan cut a barbed-wire fence, bent it back and loaded the nine wooden boxes of bees.

On Tuesday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees told the judge that 180 days in jail and felony probation was a suitable sentence for Villafan. The prosecutor argued that Villafan, when his attempt at beekeeping failed, decided to take away this essential commodity from someone else.

“He was caught red-handed loading the bees into his van,” Rees said about the defendant.

Deputy Public Defender Shaun Wahid argued that Villafan has a few minor traffic infractions but no serious criminal record. He said former employers of his client were surprised when they heard about Villafan’s case and submitted letters to the court, saying the defendant had always been an honest, hardworking man looking to help others.

“He is remorseful, and he does want to make it right,” Wahid said.

Villafan told the judge that his actions have also been devastating to his own family, and the few days he spent in jail after his arrest were the “worst days of my life.”

Judge McFadden told Villafan that if he is convicted, she likely would sentence him to 120 days in jail, 240 hours of community service and probation. She said this should be a costly lesson for him.

“This is not the way to make ends meet,” she told the defendant.

The judge scheduled Villafan to return to court May 12 to inform the court how he wants to proceed with his case.

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Victim, defendant speak in court about Stanislaus County bee colony theft."