3 charged in robberies in Berkeley hills above UC campus

Jose Avila, left, and Brenton Holtzclaw Jose Avila, left, and Brenton Holtzclaw Photo: UC Berkeley Police Photo: UC Berkeley Police Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 3 charged in robberies in Berkeley hills above UC campus 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Two men and a 17-year-old boy were accused of robbing two couples in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus on Thanksgiving and kidnapping one of the couples to take them to an ATM.

Concord residents Jose Avila, 18, Brenton Holtzclaw, 18, and Ricardo Padilla, 17, were charged Thursday by Alameda County prosecutors with second-degree robbery, kidnapping to commit robbery, kidnapping for carjacking, carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon and weapons enhancements.

Avila was 17 at the time of the alleged crimes, but both he and Padilla are being prosecuted as adults.

The first incident happened about 1:40 a.m. Nov. 27 when a 45-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man in a minivan were accosted at gunpoint by the suspects while parked at a turnout off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, police said. The assailants stole numerous items, pistol-whipped the man and tried to steal the car, police said.

About 20 minutes later, the same suspects confronted a 26-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man who also were parked off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, police said.

The suspects demanded money, but when the victims said they didn’t have any, one of the assailants got into their car and ordered them to drive to an ATM at a Walgreens drugstore in Walnut Creek, police said. The other suspects followed in their vehicle.

As the male victim withdrew $300 at the ATM, the woman was able to get a partial license plate number for the suspects’ vehicle, police said. The couple were released after handing over money.

About 3:45 a.m. that same day, Oakland police arrested Padilla and Holtzclaw for a robbery near College Avenue and Broadway, UC Berkeley police Det. Brendan Tinney wrote in a court affidavit. The suspects and their vehicle were also identified through surveillance footage from a robbery in Lafayette, police said.

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee