16 at Time of Crimes : Teen-Ager Sentenced for Robbery, Theft

A Tarzana teen-ager was sentenced Monday to five years in California Youth Authority custody for his part in a 1985 bank robbery and theft of a car at gunpoint.

Citing the defendant’s youth and lack of criminal record, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber rejected the prosecutor’s request for the maximum seven-year term.

Michael Scott Morrison, who was 16 at the time of the crimes, remains free on $50,000 bail pending appeal of earlier judicial rulings.

Morrison pleaded guilty last month to two counts of armed robbery but reserved the right to appeal judges’ decisions that found him unfit for trial in Juvenile Court and allowed evidence to be used against him that his attorney asserted was seized illegally by police.

If the appellate court rules in his favor, Morrison’s guilty plea would be set aside and he could opt for a trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert P. Imerman said.

On the other hand, if he loses on appeal, Morrison would begin serving his sentence in a CYA facility, where officials could release him at any time but must free him by his 25th birthday.

Morrison admitted robbing a teller at the Barclay’s Bank branch in Tarzana in January, 1985, and stealing a car in May, 1985, from the parking lot of a Woodland Hills restaurant.

2 Charges Dismissed

Two other bank-robbery charges were dismissed because of insufficient evidence after a preliminary hearing in January in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Morrison’s accomplice, Michael Berman, 18, of Tarzana, pleaded guilty in Sylmar Juvenile Court in August, 1985, to armed robbery and was sentenced to youth authority custody.

Although Berman was prosecuted as a juvenile, a judge ruled in October, 1985, that Morrison should be tried as an adult.

In a probation officer’s report, Morrison is quoted as saying that he and Berman robbed banks to raise money for an ice-cream truck. They planned to become business partners and later travel to Australia.

In denying the defense plea for the minimum sentence of two years, Haber said the crimes involved “a lot of sophistication” and “cry out for punishment.”