PORT ANGELES — Two Port Angeles residents who fled from authorities for three days before their arrest Wednesday on robbery and assault charges will be arraigned Feb. 4.
Alivia Laurente Konopaski, 21, and Orlando Jose Yslava, 28, had their bail set at $100,000 each Thursday at their first Clallam County Superior Court appearances. They were arrested Wednesday in the alcove of a business in the 700 block of Front Street on the two charges.
Yslava had an additional $5,000 bail set on second-degree burglary and second-degree theft charges related to an unrelated incident Saturday at Laird’s Corner Market west of Port Angeles.
The more serious counts are related to an incident that occurred at 11:05 a.m. Sunday at the East Third Street Safeway in Port Angeles.
It left 79-year-old Margerett Platt of Port Angeles with a broken C1 vertebrae, which supports the head, and without her purse, which is still missing, according to authorities.
Konopaski and Yslava were charged with one count each of accomplice to first-degree robbery of the bag and accomplice to second-degree assault with a deadly weapon — the van that pulled Platt across the pavement of the Safeway after Yslava allegedly stole the bag from her shopping cart while it sat in the store’s deli.
Platt followed him out of the store, where Konopaski was waiting in the van to drive away, authorities said.
Yslava allegedly got in passenger side, and Platt f0llowed him to the side of the vehicle, pulling at her bag in a tug of war with Yslava. Then Konopaski gunned the motor in reverse, dragging Platt on the pavement before the two allegedly sped out of the parking lot, further endangering bystanders, authorities said.
Following the incident, Platt was treated at Olympic Medical Center for a cut on her head and pain in her back and legs before she was released.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sarah Woolman said in arguing for $100,000 bail — the same amount as the arrest warrants for Yslava and Konopaski — that Platt had also broken her back when Konopaski raced away.
The robbery charge carries a maximum term of life in prison. The assault charge has a maximum term of 10 years.
When arrested, Konopaski had been released on her own recognizance on charges of second-degree organized retail theft and second-degree burglary from the Walmart store east of Port Angeles.
She is scheduled to appear in Superior Court on those charges Feb. 3, a day before she is slated to enter pleas on the robbery and assault charges.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
