Four migrants and a hotel employee in the country illegally face a variety of charges, including rape, burglary, and assault; ICE takes three so far
COLONIE – Colonie police arrested four migrants and an employee, who is also illegally in the United States, over the past six days. They were all staying at the Sure Stay Hotel on Wolf Road with hundreds of other migrants at the center of a controversial relocation program by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The five arrests and subsequent charges stemmed from four separate incidents at the hotel and a local business.
In the most recent incident Colonie police responded to the hotel this morning at 6 a.m. to make an arrest for a sexual assault that allegedly occurred yesterday.
After an investigation, police charged Simrandeep Singh, 21, whose address is listed as a room at the hotel, with rape in the third degree, a felony. That charge is lodged against someone who did not have consent to have sex with another person, but did not use physical force.
In the police report, Singh is listed as an employee at the hotel, but is not legally allowed to live in the country. The manager of the Sure Stay was not available when Spotlight News called.
Colonie police confirmed multiple reports that Singh is from India, not here legally and does not have a passport.
He was arraigned in Colonie Town Court this morning by Judge Norman Massry and remanded to the Albany County jail without bail.
It is unclear how he was legally employed at the hotel, and police said they have notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he is in custody.
“When he is released from custody, he will be picked up by Homeland Security,” Lt. Daniel Belles said.
When asked about his employment Belles said, “That is a good question. We are aware of that and are investigating.”
Belles said that the alleged incident is not related to the migrant issue taking place at the hotel, but did occur there.
“Now the owner of this hotel is employing people illegally,” Colonie Supervisor Peter Crummey said. “These employees are from India, I am told. They have access to keys and rooms, which expose these [migrants] to even more harm.”
Crummey said he expects that Homeland Security will be investigating the hotel in addition to the local investigation.
“I have said this from day one, Mayor Adams does not give a hoot about the people he dumped here,” Crummey said. “This hotel was a problem before [migrants] got here. Over the last 18 months, the Colonie police have had over 300 calls to that hotel.”
Colonie police also responded to the Cricket Wireless store on Central Avenue for a shoplifter who was assaulting employees yesterday at 7:46 p.m. When officers arrived at the store, they witnessed Andres A. Yaraure-Pina 21, who is a migrant living at the hotel, allegedly removing money from the register.
“The incident began with a disagreement over buying or selling equipment, and he decided to take money,” Belles said.
Yaraure-Pina was charged with robbery, a felony, and petit larceny and criminal mischief-recklessly damaging property. He was arraigned by Colonie Judge Norman Massry and sent to the Albany County jail without bail last night. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
This was not the first time Yaraure-Pina has been arrested.
On July 29, he was arrested in Queens for assault and obstruction of governmental administration, both misdemeanors. On Aug. 19, he was arrested again in Queens in a separate incident and charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, a felony. It is unclear the adjudication of either case. Yaraure-Pina was then relocated to the Sure Stay in Colonie.
He will be picked up by ICE when he is released from jail, Belles said.
On Sunday, Oct. 1, at 3:30 a.m., Colonie police responded to the Sure Stay for the report of a large fight at the hotel.
“It was a chaotic scene with a handful of people engaged when officers arrived, and there was blood on the walls,” Belles said. “Two people were attempting to assault others with a knife.”
Belles said it was later identified that the blood was from one of the suspects arrested who cut himself with a knife and needed hospital treatment.
The investigation was hampered by a language barrier, but Colonie received help from a Spanish-speaking officer from Schenectady police.
“We have a few officers who speak Spanish, but they were not on duty that night,” Belles said. “It is much better to have an officer who speaks Spanish conduct an investigation. We were thankful that Schenectady PD helped us out.”
After the investigation, police charged Michael Rodriguez-Cortez, 26, and Jhonathan A. Pena-Quintero, 26, both have room numbers at the Sure Stay as addresses, with attempted assault with a weapon, a felony, and menacing with a weapon and criminal possession of a weapon with intent to use, both misdemeanors.
Pena-Quintero was transported to the hospital, but returned and was arraigned with Rodriquez-Cortez. ICE picked them up and detained them after arraignment.
On Friday, Sept. 29, Colonie police responded to the Sure Stay at 6:41 p.m. for a domestic incident.
According to reports, an investigation revealed that Cleiver M. Manzanilla-Morales, 18, who is a migrant living at the hotel, allegedly hit a person with keys, causing a cut and injury to a victim.
He was charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury. Manzanilla-Morales was arraigned and ICE picked him up after arraignment.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple confirmed that Homeland Security Investigators have filed detainer warrants for Yaraure-Pina and Singh. That documentation will have jail personnel notify ICE if the two are released for any reason.
“[Adams] is just dumping people in a place that is a hotbed of criminal activity and it has only gotten worse,” Crummey said.
The recent investigations have also strained local police.
“We had to call in most of our patrol and detective divisions in the past two days to handle the two incidents,” Deputy Chief Robert Winn said.
Winn said they had to obtain multiple search warrants and deploy investigation assets during this time.
This story was edited on October 21 to correct the full names of all the arrested men. The original story had only partial names because that is the way they appeared on the arrest reports. The names were too long and were cut off.