After a hearing Tuesday and Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court, a judge ordered two defendants to stand trial after a squatter removal operation resulted in what prosecutors described as an “invasion.”
The hearing followed a Feb. 19 complaint charging James Jacobs, the owner of ASAP Squatter Removal, and his affiliate Arthur Gutierrez Jr., with multiple felonies including kidnapping, burglary, assault, false imprisonment, and firearms offenses.
The preliminary hearing was held to determine if the prosecution had enough evidence to show that defendants had likely committed the alleged crimes.
The story that prosecutors laid out could have been on a reality TV show.
Jacobs’ company is in the business of removing squatters from homes and apartments in the Bay Area without involving the courts or the sheriff. The business advertises that its methods, though unusual, are lawful.
The break-in
According to prosecution witnesses at the hearing, at nearly 3 a.m. on Jan. 6, a team of seven or eight individuals dressed in black and wearing partial face coverings used a “crude makeshift battering ram” to break through the side gate at 260 Allen Drive in San Bruno.
The intruders then entered the three-bedroom, two-bath, split-level home through an open window in an in-law suite off the garage. From there they entered the main part of the house where five people were staying at the time.
According to the testimony, the intruders wore tactical gear and were heavily armed. Some carried samurai-style swords called katana, several others had firearms and at least one had a Taser stun gun.
Silvino Manzano Jr., 51, testified that he had lived in the home with his parents “off and on” since he was 5 years old, and he resided there continuously for the last 10 years. When his father died, he and his mother continued to live there together.
Manzano said his mother had been unsuccessfully trying to sell the house for more than a year and he did not think it would happen. However, in early November of 2025, she told him that she had sold the property and he had 12 days to remove his things before the new owners took possession.
Manzano worked in the trades and had a great deal of stuff at the house, including tools and equipment. He said he had not expected to be asked to move on short notice. He did not have funds saved up and did not have a place to move.
When the sale closed and his mother moved to a new place, Manzano did not leave.
On Thanksgiving, Jacobs went to his mother’s new home for dinner. He said that while he was there, someone entered the Allen Dive house and threw many of his belongings out onto the driveway. They allegedly stole his tools and trashed what was inside of the residence. In the words of one of the witnesses, it was a “nightmare” and a “mess” afterward.
Manzano returned to the property and enlisted friends to help him clean up the house. Four of them were in the house on Jan. 6 when the intruders broke in.
Manzano said he was awakened by banging, and then he was confronted by people in black who said he had to leave. At first, he was in complete disbelief, saying “I had never seen people with swords.”
He grabbed his phone and called 911.
The scene was described as chaotic as the intruders went from room to room telling people to leave. Meanwhile, Manzano was talking to the police.
He said that at one point, he heard Jacobs say that with the police coming, his team should “start hiding stuff.”
The intruders then began to leave the house.
San Bruno Police Officer Anthony McKenna testified that he responded to the call and spoke to several of the intruders, as well as the people in the house.
The residents said that the intruders had broken in with guns. The intruders said they were entitled to take possession of the house and denied they were using guns.
McKenna said that he was unable to verify that the intruders had used guns. His initial reaction was that this was a civil matter — a dispute over property rights — not a criminal one. Based on that, police let Manzano and his housemates remain at the property and sent the intruders on their way.
The evidence
However, in the following days, McKenna discovered the ASAP website. It said that the company’s teams were experts in “close-quarters combat” and that their equipment included “shotguns, rifles and pistols,” full body armor, flash bangs and smoke grenades, as well as tear gas and “custom ammunition.”
McKenna also got an unexpected break when he found a YouTube site under ASAP’s name. The site contained dozens of videos, some of which showed footage from squatter removal operations. Several matched the date of the Allen Drive break-in.
One of the videos showed a pre-operation meeting in a nearby parking lot where Jacobs briefed the team on what he called a “breach and clear” strategy. Jacobs told the team that when they entered the house, “the gunners” would be in front and “lead the way.”
The second video (played in two parts at the hearing) appeared to McKenna to show that firearms had in fact been used in the operation and at least one of the intruders had his gun drawn and pointed at the residents.
After hearing the testimony, Judge Renee Reyna issued her decision from the bench.
She did not think that the prosecutors had shown that it could prove the requirements for the crime of kidnapping and she threw out those two counts. On the other seven counts, she found that the prosecutors had met their burden as to each of the defendants.
She said that it appeared to her from the evidence that Jacobs coordinated and orchestrated the operation and that Gutierrez was a willing participant.
She scheduled a formal arraignment on the charges for March 18. Jacobs and Gutierrez remain free on $50,000 bonds.
