COUNTYWIDE : Ex-Convict Guilty of Kidnaping, Robbery

A man who taped a phony bomb to a bank officer’s chest and ordered her to rob her Buena Park bank was convicted Monday of federal charges that will imprison him for at least 20 years.

Ralph Stephen Gambina, 43, who has been in and out of prison since 1973, was convicted of stealing $190,000 from a Buena Park bank and attempting to rob another in Torrance, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Kendra McNally.

Jurors in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles convicted Gambina on kidnaping, extortion, armed bank robbery and weapons counts. He faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison.

Gambina broke into the La Habra apartment of a bank officer on Aug. 28, 1988, and held her and her family hostage at gunpoint overnight. In the morning, he taped a phony bomb to her chest and ordered her to rob the Security Pacific bank at Beach Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue, where she worked, McNally said. Gambina threatened to detonate the bomb and kill her son unless she returned with the money.

When the woman was delayed inside the bank, Gambina came in with a gun and forced the bank’s vice president to round up $190,000 and bring it out to the car, McNally said.

Gambina confronted another bank officer outside the Security Pacific branch in Del Amo Center in Torrance on May 5, 1989, McNally said. He handcuffed a briefcase to her wrist, saying it contained a bomb, and ordered her to rob the bank. The attempted heist was foiled when sheriff’s deputies arrived, McNally said.

In a previous trial, Gambina and his wife, Julie, were acquitted of conspiracy, but jurors deadlocked on all other counts. Los Angeles prosecutors will not retry Julie Gambina, McNally said, since she faces weapons charges in San Antonio and Chicago.