Local News in Brief : Porsche Thief Given 18-Year Prison Term
A 22-year-old Los Angeles man who prosecutors said stole four Porsches at gunpoint in a 2-week period in August, 1987, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.
“It is necessary to put you away from ordinary society for as long as can be done,” said Van Nuys Superior Court Commissioner Sherman Juster as he pronounced the maximum sentence on Ricky Alan Bledsoe.
Bledsoe was convicted July 13 of one count each of attempted robbery with a firearm and felony hit-and-run, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and four counts of armed robbery.
Bledsoe’s attorney, Ed Tomas, argued for leniency, saying that Bledsoe was a “productive person” who lived at home and that the robberies were not violent.
But Juster said, “Any crime in which a gun is held to someone’s temple while their property is taken is inherently violent.”
Bledsoe was arrested on Aug. 29, 1987, when he crashed a stolen Porsche into a van on the San Diego Freeway while fleeing a police helicopter.
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