La Habra Youth’s Odyssey: Barrio, to Harvard, to Prison

Jose Luis Razo, who left a La Habra barrio to become a scholar and athlete at Harvard College, was found guilty Friday of six armed robberies almost two years after he shocked his family and friends by confessing to the crimes.

An Orange County Superior Court jury acquitted Razo of four other robberies but also convicted him of trying to escape from police officers after his arrest in July, 1987.

The case attracted national attention in 1987 because of its hard-to-answer questions: Why would a young man who had battled the ethnic odds and seemed to have such a bright future suddenly become, in the words of his former attorney, “a con . . . an inmate, just another Mexican armed robber?”

Razo faces a maximum sentence of 15 years and four months, and probably no less than four years, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ravi Mehta. Sentencing and motions for a new trial are scheduled for Aug. 4.

Razo, 22, showed no emotion while the verdicts were read in the Santa Ana courtroom. His mother and other family members who have attended regularly during the monthlong trial were not present Friday. Two friends in the courtroom broke into tears and embraced after Razo’s bail was revoked and he was remanded to the Orange County Jail.

Jurors agreed that the confession to police was the single most important factor in convicting him of the six robberies.

“It was the way he confessed,” said juror Susan Kane. “He had such an excellent memory for details. We sat in court for weeks hearing this evidence and we couldn’t remember it all the way he did. He couldn’t have that kind of memory in the confession unless he was there.”

The fact that Razo had attended Harvard, juror Dean Montanye said, was “something we considered. I think that none of us wanted to find him guilty. . . . But there was just too much evidence on most of the counts. And we couldn’t get his excellent memory out of our minds.”

Razo was arrested on July 6, 1987, when he contacted La Habra police and told them that he had committed a string of armed robberies during breaks from Harvard the previous two years.

He always wore a ski mask and clothing that would cover his neck and wrists--which bear tattoos and scars--so he would not be recognized, he told police.

His confession to police--and later to The Times and other newspapers--shocked the close-knit community of La Habra.

Until his arrest, Razo’s story was a classic American tale of an immigrant climbing the ladder to success. Born in Mexico, Razo was raised in modest surroundings in La Habra, excelled as a student and athlete at demanding parochial schools, and had taken on responsibility as a leader in the local Boys Club. He was offered scholarships by several of the country’s top colleges and chose Harvard, where he maintained above-average grades and earned the respect of his football teammates with his hard-nosed play at linebacker.

Razo’s roommates and teachers never knew, though, that there was more bothering the polite, handsome Latino from Southern California than the normal homesickness of a college student who leaves the nest.

In interviews after his arrest--and again during the trial last month--Razo told of how he felt alienated at Harvard and how no one understood him there. He talked about how he delved into the schizophrenic world of PCP to escape the guilt he felt for having left the barrio for the lofty surroundings of Cambridge.

“I’m a homeboy now,” Razo said in an interview in the Orange County Jail, just after his arrest. “At Harvard, I didn’t fit . . . I was confused.”

In that interview, Razo said he committed about 15 robberies at stores and fast-food restaurants, netting about $25,000. “I needed the money, man, and that was a way to get it,” he said.

Of the alleged crimes of which Razo was acquitted, Razo’s confessions to two of those were thrown out by a judge. In the third his former roommate testified that Razo was at Harvard when the crime was committed, and in the fourth the victim said Razo was not the man who robbed her.

Times staff writer Jerry Hicks contributed to this story.