A 67-year-old man who shoplifted more than 50 times from home improvement stores across three New Mexico counties, including Sandoval County, was sentenced to eight years in prison, state Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced.
Angel Cedeno pleaded guilty in October to organized retail crime (theft), a second-degree felony, following a pattern of thefts from Home Depot and Lowe’s locations in Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia counties between March and September 2024, according to court documents filed in Second Judicial District Court.
Second Judicial District Court Judge Britt M. Baca approved the sentence last week. Cedeno will also serve two years of parole following his prison term and five years of supervised probation, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice.
“This case underscores exactly why we wrote and championed New Mexico’s Organized Retail Crime law as one of the first major initiatives of my administration,” Torrez said in a statement. “These are exactly the kinds of crimes the NMDOJ was built to tackle as organized retail crime drives up prices, endangers workers and undermines local businesses.”
The NMDOJ’s Organized Retail Crime Unit investigated the case after examining more than 50 separate shoplifting incidents at the two retail chains across the three counties, according to the plea agreement.
Cedeno has seven prior felony convictions for shoplifting and commercial burglary spanning 2011 to 2020, court records show. His criminal history dates to the 1970s, according to the attorney general’s office.
The plea agreement requires Cedeno to pay restitution to be determined by probation officials and permanently bans him from entering any Home Depot or Lowe’s location.
The NMDOJ credited law enforcement agencies in Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia counties, along with loss prevention teams at Home Depot and Lowes, for assisting with the investigation.