Man Admits Fast-Food Holdups in Exchange for Lesser Sentence

A Hollywood man pleaded guilty Friday to 10 felony counts stemming from a string of robberies at fast-food restaurants that ended in a shoot-out in Sunland in which police killed three accomplices.

Alfredo Olivas, 19, entered the pleas in exchange for a promise by prosecutors not to seek a prison term longer than 17 years when he is sentenced July 24 in San Fernando Superior Court. Olivas could have been sentenced to life if he had also been convicted of two kidnaping and seven other felony charges that prosecutors agreed to drop in return for the guilty pleas on 10 counts of second-degree robbery.

Under sentencing guidelines, Olivas will be eligible for parole in 8 1/2 years, prosecutors said.

“He acknowledged he did a mess of wrongs, but he didn’t shoot or kill anyone,” Olivas’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Howard C. Waco, said after Friday’s hearing. “I can’t say as much for the police.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop, who prosecuted Olivas, said Friday his office agreed to drop the remaining nine counts because of weak evidence or missing witnesses.

The charges to which Olivas pleaded guilty Friday were for holdups at four restaurants between November, 1989, and the robbery at the McDonald’s in Sunland in February.

Police said Olivas’ accomplices robbed from 15 to 17 fast-food restaurants in the Los Angeles area between August, 1989, and the February shoot-out, when they were gunned down in their getaway car by police who had staked out the Sunland restaurant. Prosecutors had alleged that Olivas, who survived with two wounds, took part in seven of the robberies.

Friday’s plea agreement came less than three weeks after a judge denied an unusual defense objection to the district attorney’s request for dismissal of three murder counts against Olivas in the death of his companions.

Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to support the charges, filed under a state law that holds lawbreakers responsible for deaths that occur during their crimes.

Waco had argued that the murder charges should be allowed to stand because they would entitle him to review sealed police documents about the shooting that would help in Olivas’ defense.

Also, Waco said, the reports may have revealed potentially embarrassing details about the shooting by a controversial police unit, the Special Investigations Section.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, in a statement to Judge Stephan A. Marcus dated May 21, said he did not want the records released because the exposure could harm the careers of the officers who participated in the shooting. The publicity could also compromise the department’s rights in a pending federal lawsuit filed by Olivas against the Los Angeles Police Department in connection with the shoot-out, Gates said.

Barshop denied that eliminating the risk of negative publicity about the Police Department was a factor in agreeing to the plea bargain.

“I do not represent the Police Department,” Barshop said. “I accepted it because I felt it was fair, because of his age, and because I don’t believe he was a leader in the group.”