SIERRA VISTA — Three illegal immigrants arrested Dec. 5 after a manhunt involving Cochise County deputies and U.S. Border Patrol agents were indicted Thursday in connection to multiple home invasions.

Between the three Mexican nationals, they are charged with more than 40 counts, including kidnapping, first-degree armed burglary and theft, Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said Friday.

The men were served with the indictment on Friday.

After their arrest, bond was inappropriately set at $15,000 apiece in Justice of the Peace District 4 Court, Rheinheimer said.

When county prosecutors read of the men’s bonds on Dec. 8, a call was placed to the court to get the mistake corrected, Rheinheimer said.

Alejandrino Lara-Silva, 19, of Puebla Puebla, Mexico; Natialio Valenzuela-Valdez, 41, of Alamos, Mexico; and Yercho Vedoch-Arrayo, 18, of Las Manches, Sinaloa, Mexico, were indicted by a Cochise County grand jury.

The men were captured Dec. 6 after fleeing on foot Dec. 5 from an interrupted home invasion in the unincorporated Pearce area, during which the men tied up a 58-year-old woman in her guesthouse restroom after she investigated strange sounds in the house, according to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. The woman was not injured.

The original bond setting was inappropriate because, per a state law, if suspects are accused of most any major crime — as is the case for these three men, Rheinheimer said — and are believed to be illegal immigrants, the judge is supposed to deny bond and defendants have seven days to prepare for a hearing to present evidence that they’re not in the country illegally.

“And for whatever reason — and we don’t know why — a bond for $15,000 (each) was set when no bond should’ve been set,” Rheinheimer said. “And it was before the County Attorney’s Office knew. We read it in the paper the next morning and immediately called the justice court and pointed out the error. So it was corrected the day the story ran. I’m just really glad that none of them bonded out.”

Rheinheimer said the initial paperwork filed at Justice of the Peace District 4 Court by the arresting deputy properly indicated to the court that the suspects were believed to be in the country illegally.

Until Friday afternoon, it was not publicly confirmed that the three men had been charged in connection with more than one break-in incident, but they are in fact charged in “multiple instances of break-ins,” Rheinheimer said.

“Between the three of them there are, if I remember correctly from the indictments, between 40 and 45 counts. They’re not all charged with exactly the same things because there’s different conduct by different individuals,” Rheinheimer said.

At this time, the County Attorney’s Office cannot discuss evidence or more specific facts, he said.

So, the men remain in custody at the Cochise County Jail, with an additional federal hold for them filed by the Border Patrol pending any eventual release from local and state custody.

The victim of the Dec. 5 home invasion in Pearce reported at about 6 p.m. that three Hispanic men had been inside her guesthouse about 4:30 p.m. that day, and when she reached into the door to turn on the light to investigate unknown noise, they grabbed her arm, told her to shut up and tied her up in the bathroom.

She told investigators one of them was armed with a rifle.

The woman freed herself about 30 minutes later and went to the neighbors to get help.

The manhunt for the men began after the county was notified and was resumed the next morning. Border Patrol agents captured the three suspects on foot north of Davis Road and south of Highway 181 on the afternoon of Dec. 6.

Investigators, according to information they received during interviews with the three men, believe the men broke into the home in Pearce to search for food, water and clothing, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.

County detectives believe they forced entry, “and during interviewing they indicated they did this because they were hungry and thirsty. According to them, they were en route back to Mexico,” Capas said.

HERALD/REVIEW reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.