Orinda, Oakland Police Make Arrest In El Castillo Home Invasion Case

An 18-year-old Oakland man is in custody Thursday on a multitude of charges stemming from a violent home-invasion robbery on the Orinda-Lafayette border earlier in the week.

Orinda Police Chief Mark Nagel said that Armani Miller of Oakland was in custody on charges including kidnapping, robbery, carjacking, false imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with Monday’s home-invasion of an El Castillo home.

Nagel credited Oakland police, an alert neighbor, and the city’s relatively new Reconyx surveillance cameras with the arrest.

Orinda police were told a white, two-door Lexus had been seen in the area at the time of the robbery and a check of the city’s camera system turned up a picture of that vehicle and its license plate.

In a separate incident, Oakland police located the black Porsche Cayenne stolen from the home on El Castillo on 35th Street in their city and, after staking out that car, saw the Lexus in the area and gave chase. Miller was arrested after a short chase and a crash involving the Oakland police vehicle in which the officer was not injured, Nagel said.

Orinda police were tightlipped about aspects of the case but said it will be forwarded to the District Attorneys office Friday. They did say they were investigating the involvement of a second person in connection with the case and that there was no link between the Orinda robbery and the one in Moraga, in which no arrests have been made.

Miller remains in custody at the Main Detention Facility in Martinez, where he is being held in lieu of $375,000 bail.