SIMI VALLEY : Man Pleads Guilty to Jewelry Robbery

A Los Angeles man has pleaded guilty to armed robbery and other charges in the theft of $300,000 worth of gems and watches from a Zales Jewelry store in Simi Valley in May.

Authorities believe that Horace G. Edwards, 27, is a member of a Los Angeles-based ring that has robbed jewelry stores across California in the past year.

Edwards had already pleaded guilty in the holdup of a San Francisco Bay Area store where $500,000 in jewelry was taken six days after the Simi Valley robbery. He and four others were arrested while fleeing from a robbery in Campbell, a San Jose suburb.

Edwards changed his plea to guilty in the Simi Valley case after Ventura County Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones ruled that evidence from the Bay Area case could be used to prove that Edwards was involved in the Simi Valley robbery.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert D. Meyers said the robberies were so similar that Edwards’ admitted participation in one strongly suggested his involvement in the other.

In the Simi Valley holdup May 26, five men entered the Cochran Street store about 3 p.m. and ordered customers to lie on the floor. Meyers said Edwards, armed with a handgun, ordered an employee to give him diamonds from the vault while the other robbers took watches and jewels from display cases.

The men escaped in a stolen car that later was abandoned. No one was hurt.

Edwards was sentenced to 13 years and four months for the Bay Area robbery, Meyers said. Jones could give him an additional six years and eight months for the Simi Valley holdup during sentencing March 22.

Meyers said investigators believe that the other three men arrested in Campbell also took part in the Simi Valley robbery, but there is not enough evidence to charge them. Little of the jewelry taken in Simi Valley has been recovered, he said.