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Stolen Sonoma check leads to arrest of Santa Rosa man

Used dead man’s name for fake ID

A Santa Rosa man was arrested Monday in connection with the theft of blank checks from a Sonoma Valley woman, a crime that led to numerous other charges including identity theft, commercial burglary and theft by use of an access card.

Sonoma County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Michael Edward Green Jr., 37, of Santa Rosa, on the various charges.

According to a release from Sgt. Mick Raasch, with the Sheriff’s Property Crimes Unit, the case started on Jan. 8, when a Sonoma Valley woman reported she had been a victim of mail theft after two boxes of blank checks she had ordered from her bank were stolen out of her mailbox. She discovered one check had been fraudulently written, payable to David Tentis, for nearly $1,000, and called the Sheriff’s Office to file a report.

Detectives discovered that David Tentis had been dead since June 2012, and, through bank records, learned that someone had opened an account at Bank of America on Dec. 2, of last year in the dead man’s name. The fraudulent check stolen from the Sonoma woman’s mailbox was deposited into the Tentis account. With that knowledge, detectives were able to obtain surveillance video of a person withdrawing money from the account on three separate occasions.

A detective recognized the suspect in the surveillance video as Michael Edward Green, who was already wanted for four outstanding arrest warrants for not showing up in court on criminal charges for vehicle theft, drug sales, weapon charges and violation of probation for a previous DUI conviction.

Detectives learned that Green was obtaining credit cards in Tentis’ name and using the credit cards at various locations in Sonoma County. Green had also rented hotel rooms under the name of David Tentis, and is a suspect in a commercial burglary case being investigated by Santa Rosa police for stealing items from one of the hotel rooms in which he stayed.

Raasch said that on Monday, at about 10 a.m., a Rohnert Park police officer contacted Greene and Kailyne Marbry in the parking lot of the Budget Inn motel parking lot. Green falsely identified himself to the officer as David Tentis.

The officer discovered that Tentis was deceased and Green was using Tentis’ name to avoid being arrested. Green was arrested for his outstanding arrest warrants, along with falsely identifying himself to police. Marbry, 22, of Santa Rosa, was arrested after officers found a large amount of methamphetamine in her possession.

Green was booked into the county jail for his four outstanding arrest warrants, three counts of commercial burglary, ID theft, theft by use of an access card and falsely identifying himself to police. His bail was set at $181,000.

Marbry was booked into the county jail for possession/sale of methamphetamine. Her bail was set at $40,000.