‘I Was Confused’ : ‘I Did 15 Robberies,’ Says Jailed Harvard Student

The Harvard sophomore suspected of committing a string of armed robberies in Los Angeles and Orange counties in the last two years described himself Friday as a “very confused” young man, torn between a rarefied academic life and the streets of his lower-middle-class neighborhood in La Habra.

“I needed the money, man, and that was a way to get it,” said Jose Luis Razo Jr. in an interview Friday at the Orange County Jail. “I did 15 robberies, averaged $2,000 each, and I gave most of the money away.”

He said he stole to help his parents pay bills, to pay for trips home and to help friends in need.

“Whatever my family wanted it got--food, bills paid, furniture,” he said. “I needed money for school and plane flights back and forth from Harvard.”

Although Razo said he kept his criminal activities from his family, he said his mother was often “worried as hell that I was getting more money than the job I was working at was paying.” He said he worked at fast food restaurants near his home, such as Taco Bell.

Appearing calm in his jail-issue jump suit, the handsome 20-year-old Latino with a glossy black crewcut spoke through a telephone behind a plate-glass window in the jail’s visiting area about his arrest Monday by La Habra police on suspicion of eight robberies dating back to December, 1985.

Razo said he figures he netted about $30,000 in the robberies. Based on statements he made to police, he is suspected in robberies in La Habra, Costa Mesa, Whittier and one in Miami, Fla.

However, police say the amount taken in the robberies could be far less than $30,000.

“At Harvard, I didn’t fit,” said the 6-foot, 200-pound Razo. “I was confused. . . . No one understood me. I am a ‘homeboy’ now,” he said, using the Latino term for a neighborhood chum.

Then, the scholarship student and football star added in Spanish, “I don’t sell out my own ethnic identity.”

Throughout a one-hour discussion, he displayed no remorse and seemed almost cavalier about his admitted crime spree. He denied being a “Barrio Robin Hood,” but said the ready cash stolen from merchants enabled him to help relatives and friends.

He said the reign of ski-mask holdups started with a local dairy while he was still a senior at Servite High School in Anaheim.

They continued, he said, over the next two years with guns borrowed from “homeboys.”

Razo’s arrest came after an interview with police over his call saying he had information about the unsolved killing of a 9-year-old Santa Ana girl last month. Razo said he planned to “help them as much as I could” with information obtained from his “contacts in the street.”

Police in Cambridge, Mass., and Boston said they have no evidence linking Razo with any holdups there.

Razo’s version of the rash of robberies and the amount of money taken generally agrees with what police investigators have found so far.

But figures compiled by police agencies suggest that Razo might have exaggerated the amount he said he got away with.

La Habra police have identified at least $7,165 taken in eight armed robberies in that city believed to have been committed by Razo. Figures collected from police spokesmen in Whittier, Industry, Garden Grove, Anaheim and Costa Mesa bring the total to $12,215, far less than the approximately $30,000 Razo said he took.

Razo said Friday the first of 15 robberies he said he committed was the day after Christmas, 1985, when he said he donned a knit ski mask and carried a semiautomatic pistol into the neighboring Driftwood Dairy.

“I got about $60,” said Razo, adding that he borrowed the gun from “homeboys” in the neighborhood.

“Guns travel if you know the right people,” Razo said with a smile.

“It was easy, but it was risky too,” he said. Tapping the plate-glass window with his index finger, he added, “I gave some of the money to my mother, bought stuff to eat and put in the refrigerator.”

In time, he said, his robberies became almost routine in La Habra and surrounding communities. Police files on local robberies committed by a man wearing a ski mask and pulling a handgun seem to support that assertion.

According to police, a man carrying a pistol and wearing what appeared to be a crudely fashioned ski mask with eyeholes cut out robbed a Safeway market of $2,600 on Dec. 28, 1985, and a Taco Bell of $1,600 on July 3, 1986.

Twenty days later, a man fitting that description robbed a Smart and Final Wholesale warehouse of $1,000.

On Feb. 1, 1987, a similar suspect took $700 from a McDonald’s Restaurant. On April 5, 1987, a local Burger King was robbed of $930.

Elsewhere, police said, Razo has admitted to robberies or is a suspect.

In Industry, police sources said, Razo is a suspect in a December, 1985, robbery at a supermarket and a June, 1987, robbery of a McDonald’s.

In each case a masked gunman matching Razo’s physical description walked into the establishment at closing time and demanded money, said Whittier police detective Dan Fredrich, who is coordinating police investigations of the Razo case in Los Angeles County. It was unknown how much money was taken in each incident.

Whittier police said Razo told them Wednesday that he robbed a Round Table Pizza restaurant in August, 1986, and another Round Table in January, 1987. Whittier police also say Razo is a suspect in the April, 1987, robbery of a McDonald’s in that city.

Nearly $3,000 was taken in the three Whittier robberies believed to have been committed by Razo, Fredrich said. He added that the Whittier and Industry robberies all occurred within a ten-minute drive from La Habra.

Anaheim detectives said Razo told them he robbed a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Garden Grove of $1,050 on June 9, 1987. They also said Razo admitted to them Wednesday that on June 10, 1987, he robbed a McDonald’s in Anaheim. The take wasn’t disclosed.

Costa Mesa police said they intended to seek charges against Razo in the June 28, 1987, robbery of a McDonald’s in that city. Detective Sam Zuorski said $1,000 was taken in that incident.

Describing his method, Razo said: “I’d start searching at about 10 p.m. for a place with a good getaway. Then I would go inside and hide. After it closed and the customers left, I’d put on the mask, pull out the gun and take the money. I’d leave out the back door.”

Razo said only his “closest homeboys” knew about his nocturnal crime sprees. Otherwise, the La Habra Boys Club member and local hero who was active in the community and visited convalescent homes and children’s hospital wards kept his secret to himself.

“Sometimes I’d sneer and laugh, ‘If they only knew,’ ” said Razo, referring to his teachers, coaches, family and friends.

“I was feeling confused, misunderstood at school . . . a friend said I should go to Florida for spring break, that it was the thing to do,” he said. “But there was nothing there for me, just fast cars and fast women. But that wasn’t me.”

Having spent most of his available cash on planes tickets to Florida--the spring break mecca for East Coast students--Razo said he began hitchhiking in Miami to get around.

“A guy picked me up one day,” he said. “I told him I needed some money. He said he needed money too. He said, ‘Let’s do a robbery,’ got a gun and we did it.”

Razo declined to name the accomplice. Police investigators have yet to confirm the Miami robbery.

In retrospect, Razo said he feels no remorse for the crimes he committed.

“I don’t regret them,” he said with a smug smile. “No one ever got hurt. . . . Besides, I helped a lot of people. . . . Whenever people came to me in need I could help them out.”

Times staff writers Lonn Johnston, Doug Brown and Nancy Wride contributed to this story.