Local News in Brief : Canoga Park Man Admits 12 Holdups

A Canoga Park man pleaded guilty Friday to 12 robberies of San Fernando Valley restaurants and supermarkets in a 13-day period last year.

Edward Lee Gandy, 24, displayed a gun or faked being armed in robberies in May in Canoga Park, Reseda and Van Nuys, authorities said.

“Luckily, no one received physical injuries and no shots were fired, but potential for violence was very, very great,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michelle R. Rosenblatt.

Gandy could be sentenced to a maximum of 28 years and eight months for the robberies. The maximum sentence includes an additional five years for a residential burglary conviction Gandy received in 1983, Rosenblatt said. Sentencing is scheduled April 25 before Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Bernard Kaufman.

Los Angeles police said Gandy told investigators that he committed the robberies to support an addiction to rock cocaine.

The guilty plea came after Gandy’s lawyer, Cary B. Weiss, persuaded Kaufman to rule that Gandy’s 1984 guilty plea in an attempted-robbery case was made improperly and thus cannot be considered in Gandy’s current case. The 1984 conviction could have added five years to his maximum sentence.

Weiss successfully argued that a prosecutor in the 1984 case failed to tell Gandy precisely that, by pleading guilty, he was waiving his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Kaufman said the prosecution, “for lack of a better word, blew it.”