A 44-year-old man with a history of burglary, Juan Carlos Montiel, was charged Friday with breaking into a church in Huntington Beach.
Huntington Beach police arrested Montiel on Wednesday for allegedly burglarizing First Christian Church at 1207 Main St., according to spokesman Corbin Carson. A church employee confronted Montiel on August 17, noting that he appeared to be an electrician claiming to respond to a power outage. The employee became suspicious because no outage had occurred and asked him to leave.
Investigators used evidence from the scene and surveillance video to identify Montiel, who is also suspected in church burglaries in Fountain Valley and Los Angeles, Carson said.
Montiel is charged with a felony count of second-degree burglary. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday and is scheduled to appear in court on October 20 at the North Justice Center in Fullerton.
Montiel has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2007, including multiple burglary convictions. He was out on bail for an identity theft case when he failed to appear in court in September, prompting a warrant for his arrest.
Court records show Montiel pleaded guilty in August 2021 to burglarizing the First Evangelical Free Church in Brea and the Sarang Community Church in Anaheim. He also admitted to misdemeanor grand theft by employee and fraud in Orange and a felony burglary with misdemeanor possession of burglary tools in Anaheim.
Earlier, Montiel pleaded guilty to felony burglary in July 2008 and was sentenced to three years in prison.
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