Roommate Says Razo Probably Was at Harvard During Holdup

A Harvard University basketball player testified Wednesday that Jose Razo, his former roommate, was on the Cambridge, Mass., campus the day that one of the 10 Orange County holdups that Razo is accused of committing occurred.

However, under cross-examination, Neil Patrick Phillips acknowledged that he could not be positive that Razo, the alleged Ski Mask Bandit, was at Harvard on Feb. 1, 1987. Phillips testified in Superior Court in Santa Ana that to “his best recollection,” Razo was still in Massachusetts on the date in question.

Students at Harvard were taking a few days between semester finals during late January and early February, 1987, Phillips said.

“I’m practicing (for the Harvard squad) during those winter months, and that day was the only opportunity I had to play basketball with Joe. He was very good, and we made notice of it,” Phillips testified.

Phillips, who is from Germantown, Md., roomed with Razo in 1986-87 during their sophomore year at Harvard. Phillips’ testimony came during the 3rd day of the defense portion of Razo’s trial, which began May 5 in Santa Ana.

The prosecution has charged Razo with committing 10 robberies, netting about $27,000 during his vacations and summer breaks from Harvard. Razo, 22, who was a football star and honors student at Anaheim’s Servite High School, won an academic scholarship to Harvard and also played football there.

In June, 1987, Razo confessed to La Habra police that he had held up about a dozen stores in Orange and Los Angeles counties. All of the robberies coincided with times that Razo was known to be in California except for the Feb. 1, 1987, holdup.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ravinder Mehta said Wednesday that it was possible that Razo flew back to California during the brief lull between semesters at Harvard in early February, 1987.

Razo, who spent his third day Wednesday on the witness stand, has repeatedly denied committing any of the robberies to which he has confessed. He said he was deranged from taking PCP--phencyclidine and usually referred to as “angel dust”--when he made the 1987 confessions. All of the crimes were committed by a childhood friend, Richard Longoria, Razo testified. Razo said Longoria told him the exact details of each robbery.

In testimony on Wednesday, Razo said he falsely accused himself of robberies in 1987 because he felt guilt for being successful while many of his Chicano friends were not.

“In hindsight I now see that I was feeling very guilty about my Harvard experience--my comfortable life style,” Razo said. “I was feeling alienated from my family at home and Mexicans in general. I wanted to be accepted in a normal, everyday type of way in terms of the neighborhood and friends I had known.

”. . . I was wanting to truly identify with Richard (Longoria). I wanted to feel like him, like his type. . . There was a time I did believe I was the robber, and it didn’t seem absurd to say that.”

Mehta has said outside of court that he believes that Razo “was reaching for a scapegoat” by naming Longoria as the real Ski Mask Bandit.

Mehta said that investigators are trying to locate Longoria and that he may be subpoenaed to testify.