Published: Friday, Jul. 10, 2009
Man blames debt from sale of fake drugs for role in bank robbery
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closeA Los Angeles-area man accused of helping rob a San Luis Obispo bank two years ago blames debt from a sale of fake cocaine for his alleged role in the crime.
Testifying against alleged ringleader Leonard Jones in a San Luis Obispo Superior Court preliminary hearing Thursday, Michael Smith described why he decided to help the defendant in the robbery of Downey Savings and Loan on Nov. 21, 2007.
Smith — who has pleaded no contest to robbery, false imprisonment and gang activity charges in the heist — testified that he agreed to rob the financial institution now called U.S. Bank on Higuera Street after acting as the middleman in the sale of $2,000 worth of fake cocaine to Jones.
Smith said he wasn’t aware that the drugs weren’t real until after the sale, and then later learned of threats against his family. The source of the purported threats did not come up during the hearing.
The robbery netted what bank officials estimated was $8,400. Smith kept about $1,000 of that, he testified.
“When threats were made I didn’t know if my family was in jeopardy or not, but I wanted to get them out of the mix,” Smith said.
Police, calling the crime ring the Big Money Bandits, say Jones coordinated groups of people to come to San Luis Obispo on two occasions to rob banks. Smith explained that he used a BB gun in the takeover-style robbery, and that an accomplice, Dejaun Javier, held the bag and demanded money from bank employees.
Smith’s no-contest plea resulted in a conviction without his admitting guilt. He faces a minimum sentence of five years in prison, which will be decided after his testimony in the case against Jones.
Smith said that Jones orchestrated the robbery and that they met later at the home of police informant Karl Jones with Javier and an unidentified woman.
DNA evidence on the gun led authorities to Smith after Karl Jones identified a man who has since been cleared of accusations in the crime.
Judge Charles S. Crandall ruled that Deputy District Attorney Gregory Devitt presented enough evidence for the case to go to trial, which is expected to happen in the fall.
A jury was deadlocked after a trial against Leonard Jones on the same charges last year.
But Jones was convicted after a six-week trial of conspiring to rob Los Padres Bank in San Luis Obispo with six men from the Los Angeles area on Dec. 13, 2007 — less than a month after the Downey robbery.
Jones received the maximum possible sentence for that conviction of 20 years from Superior Court Judge John A. Trice, who took into account his gang-related activity and a prior record of a second degree robbery in the Los Angeles area in the 1980s.
Javier was convicted in May 2008 of four counts of second-degree robbery and criminal street gang activity.
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