COUNTYWIDE : Man Pleads Guilty to Robbing 2 Banks
A 20-year-old Oxnard man suspected of staging the largest bank robbery spree in Ventura County last year has pleaded guilty to robbing two banks, the FBI said Wednesday.
Jose Luis Villarreal pleaded guilty Jan. 9 in Los Angeles federal court to robbing two Thousand Oaks banks in October, officials said. Five other bank robbery charges against Villarreal were dismissed.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles had indicted Villarreal in October, charging him with six Ventura County bank robberies and one Los Angeles County robbery. The FBI said he was suspected of robbing 10 area banks.
Villarreal is scheduled to be sentenced by U. S. District Judge John G. Davies on Feb. 27. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each robbery, said Gary Auer, head of the FBI’s Ventura office.
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