The San Jose Police Department announced on Monday, November 9, 2026, that three men have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery that targeted a family in its own driveway in East San Jose more than three months ago. Police identified the suspects as Dennis Jackson, 19, of Stockton; Charles Gaston, 30, of Sacramento; and Richard Burton, 32, of Tracy. All three were booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of armed robbery, the department said in a press release.
Source: San Jose Police Department press release, Nov 9, 2026
The robbery itself happened on August 7 at about 10:30 p.m. at a home in East San Jose, police said. A family of three — two adults and a child — had just arrived home and parked their vehicle in their driveway when they were approached by two male suspects. Police said the suspects pulled out weapons and forcibly took the victims' jewelry and other belongings.
Source: KION / CBS News, Carlos E. Castañeda, Nov 9, 2026
The suspects then fled the scene in a vehicle before officers arrived, police said. The department did not disclose whether anyone was injured in the robbery, and it has not released the family's names or the child's age — details that are routinely withheld in cases involving a child victim. What police did describe, in full, is the investigation that followed.
How detectives say they found the three men
According to the department, robbery detectives began an investigation and, using automated license plate reader data, identified the suspect vehicle and were later able to identify both primary suspects and an additional suspect. Detectives then obtained arrest warrants for each suspect and search warrants for their homes, police said. That paper trail is what took San Jose detectives out of Santa Clara County and into three separate cities in October.
On October 22, detectives located Jackson in Stockton and located Gaston in Sacramento, and both men were arrested, police said. On October 26, Burton was taken into custody in Tracy. Police have not said which of the men they believe approached the family in the driveway and which they believe played another role, and they have not described what, if anything, the home searches recovered.
The geography of the arrests is part of the story. Stockton, Tracy and Sacramento sit along the Central Valley and capital-region corridors east and north of the Bay Area — the same corridors along which thousands of Punjabi families live and commute, with Stockton home to one of the oldest Sikh communities in the United States and Tracy and Sacramento home to large Punjabi populations today. A San Jose case whose suspects are arrested in Stockton, Tracy and Sacramento is therefore followed closely well beyond Santa Clara County.
Police say two suspects approached the family and a third suspect was identified during the investigation. They have NOT disclosed whether anyone was injured, have NOT named a street address in East San Jose, and have NOT said whether the men are suspected in any other robberies. Anyone with information about this case or similar cases is asked to contact Detective Ortega #4834 of the SJPD robbery unit at 4834@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277-4166.
Background: the driveway-arrival robbery pattern
Police departments across the Bay Area and the Central Valley have repeatedly warned residents about robberies that happen in the first minutes after a family pulls into its own driveway at night, when victims are carrying valuables, doors are unlocked and attention is on getting inside. Investigators say automated license plate reader networks — cameras that log passing plates on major roads — have become a standard tool for identifying a fleeing vehicle after exactly this kind of crime, and San Jose police credit that data here with turning an August case with no arrests at the scene into three named suspects by October.
The charges are allegations. Jackson, Gaston and Burton are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court, and their cases will now move through the Santa Clara County court system, where prosecutors will decide the formal charges each man faces and judges will set the next hearing dates.
What happens next
All three men remain booked at the Santa Clara County Main Jail on armed robbery charges, according to the department's announcement. The next steps are formal charging and first court appearances in Santa Clara County. Police are still asking anyone with information about this robbery — or about similar cases — to contact Detective Ortega #4834 at 4834@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277-4166, the department said.