Razo Pleads Innocent to 10 Holdup Counts

Jose Luis Razo Jr., the 20-year-old Harvard University football player accused of being “the ski mask bandit,” pleaded innocent Wednesday to 10 counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted escape.

Deputy Public Defender James S. Egar requested a psychiatric examination for Razo, who has admitted committing at least 15 robberies while on school breaks in the last 18 months, according to police officials.

Egar, Razo’s court-appointed attorney for any charges in Orange County, declined to say whether he was planning a psychiatric defense for the former honor student and football star at Anaheim’s Servite High School.

‘Shining Success Story’

“It may well be,” Egar said. “I want to explore all issues, including his mental status. He was a shining success story not only for his family but for the community. He’s a young man under enormous physical and mental pressure. There must be some very strong pressures that put him where he is now. This is a case that cries out with the question, why?”

Razo, sitting in the courtroom holding cell wearing a mustard-yellow prison jump suit, showed no emotion during his 15-minute arraignment hearing, except to smile and wave twice to family members and friends in the audience.

Egar said the Razo family has taken steps to set up a restitution fund for the victims of the robberies their son is accused of committing.

“That does not mean the family believes he is guilty,” Egar said. “Without admitting any wrongdoing, they would like to help their son and the victims.”

He said the family planned to obtain a second mortgage on their La Habra home.

The family declined to talk with reporters after the hearing.

Orange County Municipal Judge Robert B. Hutson scheduled pretrial motions for Aug. 7 and a preliminary hearing for Sept. 18. The judge also granted a defense request to seal the family’s affidavit requesting a public defender.

La Habra attorney Michael R. McDonnell, who had represented Razo until Wednesday’s arraignment, said he will defend the Harvard scholarship student against any charges that may be brought in Los Angeles County.

Razo has admitted committing three robberies in their city, Whittier police said, and is suspected of two others in Industry.

Razo entered innocent pleas Wednesday to eight counts of armed robbery in La Habra and one each in Anaheim and Garden Grove. Police said he has also confessed to committing robberies in Costa Mesa and Miami.

In a jailhouse interview last week, Razo said he stole nearly $30,000 in 15 robberies to help his parents pay bills, to pay for his trips home from college and to help friends in need.

He described himself as “very confused” and torn between a rarefied academic life at Harvard and the streets of his working-class neighborhood in La Habra.

“At Harvard, I didn’t fit,” he said. “I was confused. . . . No one understood me.”

In retrospect, Razo said in the interview that he felt no remorse for the crimes. “I don’t regret them,” he said. “No one ever got hurt. Besides, I helped a lot of people.”