SAN DIEGO (CBS 8 / CNS) - A teenager accused of taking part in a countywide crime spree with her 40-year-old husband appeared in court Monday. A judge ordered the preliminary hearing for Cindy Garcia, 18, continued to Feb. 6.
Garcia is charged with robbery, carjacking and making criminal threats. Her husband, Philip Hernandez, was killed in a police shootout on Halloween night with Garcia by his side.
News 8 spoke with a former National City neighbor, who lived next door to Hernandez for more than two years and remembered Garcia.
Ron Haubold, 63, was under the false impression that Garcia was Hernandez's daughter. At the time, Garcia was age 17 and Hernandez was a wanted man on charges of having sex with Garcia as a minor.
Haubold took photos of he teen smoking cigars and climbing over a balcony railing 12 stories off the ground in the high-rise condo complex she shared with Hernandez.
On Halloween night, officers were investigating Hernandez for a 4 1/2-hour armed-robbery series that occurred Oct. 29, when Hernandez pulled over near Harbor Drive and Cesar Chavez Parkway.
Hernandez got out of the vehicle and allegedly began shooting at the patrol personnel who were following him, prompting several of them to return fire. Hernandez died at the scene and Garcia was arrested when she exited the vehicle.
During the spate of armed holdups, the perpetrators wore garments with the word "police'' on them, stealing from pedestrians and motorists in the North County and two San Diego neighborhoods.
During one of the robberies, off-duty San Diego police Officer Les Stewart, 57, was shot at a walk-up ATM in Escondido. He was hospitalized with a graze wound and later released.
In another attack, Will Barton, 20, was shot in the head in Hillcrest. He remains hospitalized with serious brain injuries.
Since her arrest, details of sexual abuse have emerged in Garcia's past.
Garcia was the victim of sex trafficking at the age of 14, when she was kidnapped and taken into Mexico in 2009 and forced into prostitution.
After nearly two months, Garcia was rescued with the assistance of a San Diego human rights group, and returned to her mother in National City.
Garcia faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted on all counts.