David Margulis.cropped.JPG

David Margulis, owner of Margulis Jewelers in Portland, gave chase to a member of a coast-to-coast diamond theft ring in December 2010.

(Bryan Denson/The Oregonian)

A jet-setting band of alleged diamond thieves accused of striking jewelry stores from Portland to Vero Beach, Fla. – once using a Chihuahua as a diversion, another time making a getaway on Jet Skis – appears to be throwing in the towel.

A jury trial set for July 14 in Portland's U.S. District Court appears to be on hold as some members of the gang have pleaded guilty and others have scheduled hearings to do the same.

From late 2009 to the middle of 2011, eight thieves knocked off high-value diamonds from 23 jewelry stores, a cinema-worthy run by pros who sometimes resembled "Ocean's Eleven," other times the Keystone Kops, according to court papers.

Their take in their grab-and-dash thefts was more than $3 million worth of diamonds and jewelry, which they fenced through a Philadelphia company, government prosecutors allege. They struck in Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, California and Oregon.

The eight thieves planned their heists down to the second, according to court documents. They began by casing jewelry stores, sending in one or two members of the ring – sometimes posing as lovers ready for engagement. They charmed store employees as they identified high-value diamonds. And they targeted vulnerable salespeople.

Ring members watched the businesses, sometimes for days. Then they sent in a runner, someone who had never been in the store. The runner addressed employees by their first names and then, when their guards were down, grabbed one or more diamonds and sprinted to a getaway car, according to court documents.

The stolen cars carried members of the ring to another vehicle, known as a "wash car," and drove out of town.

On March 19, 2010, after six such thefts in Florida, Mississippi and Texas, the thieves struck again at McCarver & Moser Jewelers in Sarasota, Fla., according to the government's superseding indictment.

Samuel Livingston walked in carrying a Chihuahua named "Roxy," according to the records.

As a saleswoman pulled out gleaming diamond rings one at a time, Livingston asked her to hold his dog while he looked one over. That's when he pounced. Livingston grabbed two magnificent rocks valued at $82,405 and dashed out the door, according to court papers.

He left Roxy behind.

When a store employee gave chase, Livingston punched him and jumped into a getaway car driven by Trey Adams, the government alleges.

Early that July, prosecutors allege, Ernest Remor bought a Taser gun and tested it on two members of the ring, Adams and Jack Cannon, to make sure it worked.

"(Be) one with the Taser," he told them.

On July 17, prosecutors say, one of the ring's leaders, Ernest Remor, slipped behind the wheel of a stolen car and drove Adams and Cannon over to Lou Wilson Fine Jewelry in the Atlantic coast town of Vero Beach, Fla.

Adams stole an estimated $100,000 in diamond jewelry and Cannon shot an employee with the Taser before they ran to the getaway car, the government alleges.

That August, Michael Young, who is described as the ringleader, planned the boldest theft yet from Congress Jewelry on Sanibel Island, Fla., prosecutors allege.

Young borrowed Jet Skis to help the gang make off with a diamond ring valued at $190,000. Cannon stole the rock and jumped into a getaway car driven by Adams, and they fled the island on the personal watercraft.

The gang's undoing began in October 2010, when Young and Teri Miller "shopped" Margulis Jewelers on Portland's Southwest Broadway Drive, learning the layout of the store. Adams and a newcomer to the ring, Victor James Lupis, flew to Portland.

Young briefed the two on the layout of the store and gave Adams a map of Portland. He assigned Lupis as the runner and gave him a canister of pepper spray in case anyone might chase, according to court papers.

At 4:23 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2010, the thief walked into Margulis Jewelers and asked to look at a nice 3-carat diamond ring with a retail value of $52,500, recalled owner David Margulis in an interview Friday with The Oregonian. The man -- prosecutors say it was Lupis -- asked to compare it side by side with a $95,000 platinum ring that featured a radiant cut diamond with a triangular diamond on either side, nearly 5 carats.

He held them up to inspect them and suddenly bolted for the front door.

"I couldn't believe what was happening," Margulis said. "The natural reflex was to take off after him. Here's a 60-year-old chasing after a twenty-something-year-old. There was no match. He was flying, and I was not sprinting."

Lupis dashed up the sidewalk along Southwest Broadway, hurtled into another building and vanished, prosecutors say.

All he left behind was surveillance video. Portland police put the images on Crime Stoppers. Nearly three months passed before an anonymous tip came in. A caller identified the thief as Lupis.

Portland police detectives Eric McDaniel and Brian Hughes jumped into the case. McDaniel put a photo array in front of Margulis that included Lupis' face, and the jewelry storeowner identified him as the man he chased out of his showroom.

Police found Lupis in a North Carolina jail, and he eventually confessed, according to court records. It appears Lupis helped the detectives, working with two FBI agents and a forensic analyst, chase down the ring – but not before the gang hit eight more jewelry stores, including shops in Lake Oswego, Bend and Troutdale.

The FBI arrested Young and Remor in a $372,000 home in West Salem in July 2011.

The ring had fenced millions in stolen diamonds and other jewelry through a Philadelphia shop called Three Gold Brothers Inc., prosecutors allege. The government charged the company and one of its employees, Eric Janovsky, in the conspiracy with the other seven defendants.

-- Bryan Denson