Witness Contradicts Razo’s Assertion That Friend Carried Out Robberies

Attorneys called their last witnesses in the robbery trial of former Harvard student Jose Luis Razo on Thursday, capping a week of testimony in which a state parole officer contradicted Razo’s claim that a neighborhood friend actually committed all of the crimes.

Razo, 22, emigrated with his parents from Mexico to La Habra while still a young boy and became a symbol of academic and athletic success at Servite High School in Anaheim, where he was a football standout. He received thousands of dollars in aid from Harvard, and had just completed his second year at the prestigious college when he confessed to police in July, 1987, that, on more than a dozen occasions, he had donned a ski mask, grabbed a gun and robbed stores and restaurants in Orange and Los Angeles counties during school breaks.

During the trial in Superior Court in Santa Ana, however, Razo recanted that confession. He said that a combination of his scholastic interest in Latino crime, his use of the drug PCP (Phencyclidine, often referred to as “angel dust”) and his feelings of alienation and guilt for having left the barrio, led him to assume the persona of the man who was actually committing the robberies and relating the details to Razo.

That man, Razo testified last week, was Richard F. Longoria, 34, of La Habra. Longoria jumped a fence into the Razo family’s back yard after robbing the Driftwood Dairy about 8:40 p.m. on Dec. 26, 1985, and bumped into Razo, who was mowing the lawn, Razo testified.

Longoria told Razo in explicit detail about the crime, Razo claimed, as he did after each of the other nine robberies Razo is charged with in Orange County.

But Michael Stapleton, Longoria’s parole agent from 1985 to 1988, testified in court Wednesday that Longoria was in state prison on a narcotics conviction when the Driftwood Dairy robbery occurred. He was still there two days later, on Dec. 28, 1985, when the next robbery occurred at a Safeway Market in La Habra, Stapleton said.

Longoria got out of a state correctional facility in Jamestown in Tuolumne County the morning of July 3, 1986, Stapleton said. Another robbery Razo is charged with, at a Taco Bell restaurant in La Habra, occurred late that night.

Longoria was back behind bars--this time in Orange County Jail--from Oct. 28, 1986, until April 1, 1987, Stapleton said. One of the robberies Razo is accused of occurred during that time, on Feb. 1, 1987, at a McDonald’s restaurant. One of the Los Angeles County robberies Razo is charged with occurred Jan. 12, 1987, while another took place April 1--the day Longoria got out of jail--in the City of Industry.

Investigators for the prosecution have been unable to locate Longoria, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ravi Mehta said. Longoria “seems to have a good alibi, though, doesn’t he?” Mehta said.

Razo’s attorney, John D. Barnett, would not comment on the discrepancy between Razo’s testimony and Longoria’s prison record. It was Barnett, and not Mehta, who called parole agent Stapleton as a witness, although his testimony contradicted his client’s.

“We’re interested in a jury hearing all the facts,” Barnett said.

On Thursday, Barnett called Razo’s father and sister to the witness stand. After his arrest, Razo said that he used the money he stole in the robberies to buy things for his family, including a television set. But his sister, Laura Bianca Razo, testified Thursday that it was she, not Jose, who bought the TV set.

Razo’s father, Jose Luis Razo Sr., said Thursday that his son’s claim that they had passed a Smart & Final warehouse early one morning en route to Mexico--which the younger Razo said gave him the idea to rob it--was not true.

Prosecutor Mehta called psychiatrist Joseph A. Shannon on Thursday afternoon as his final rebuttal witness. While Shannon never examined Razo, he testified that Razo’s videotaped statements to police about the robberies were far too detailed to have been made by someone who was suffering from a drug-induced psychosis and who had merely heard about the crimes secondhand.

Earlier in the trial, Barnett had called a forensic psychologist, Francis M. Crinella, who had examined Razo two weeks after confessing to police. Crinella’s opinion was that Razo had suffered a psychotic breakdown, Barnett said.

In August, 1987, about a month after he was arrested, Razo scored only 90 on an IQ test, Crinella testified. Five months later, he scored 130--a score that Shannon said was “well within” the top 5% of the population.

Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for Monday.