2 Robbery Defendants Deny Shooting Driver of Van

Two men on trial for their alleged participation in an armored van holdup that went awry admitted planning the robbery but denied any involvement in a shooting that left the van’s driver severely wounded, their attorneys said Monday.

Gilbert Orlandus Green, 23, and Thomas Anthony Chaney, 29, both of Ontario, are accused of attempted murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in the shooting May 16 of armored van driver John Statkus, who was guarding more than $200,000.

The defendants’ alleged accomplice, Mark Anthony Blount, who prosecutors contend was the triggerman, was convicted of similar charges earlier this month.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Arnold D. Westra said that Green and Chaney are just as responsible for the shooting because they were participants in the botched holdup outside the parking lot of a Garden Grove convenience store.

As the trial opened Monday, Chaney’s attorney, Stephen J. Biskar, told the jury that his client “made a really big mistake. A stupid decision when he got involved” in this “sad tale.”

But just before the holdup occurred, Chaney “wanted no part of it and tried to dissuade Mr. Blount and Mr. Green not to go through with it,” Biskar said.

Chaney then walked away from his would-be partners, Biskar said.

Donald G. Rubright, Green’s attorney, told the jury in his opening statement that his client was guilty of participating in the “ill-conceived plan” to rob the armored van but had no idea that Blount would shoot the driver.

The plan, Rubright said, was to push Statkus inside the vehicle, handcuff him and make off with a bag of $20 bills that Statkus was going to load into an automated teller machine at the convenience store.

The shooting was not a “natural and probable consequence of the plan,” Rubright said.

But prosecutor Westra told the jury that the evidence in the case will show that all three men were responsible for what occurred.

He said in his opening statement that Chaney had recently been fired from the armored van company, Wells Fargo, and was the mastermind of the plan. During the holdup, Westra said, Green and Chaney were acting as lookouts while Blount assaulted Statkus.

Blount, 25, of Pomona apparently attacked Statkus from behind, shoved him in the van and shot him at least twice, Westra said. Blount then tried to drive the van away but was foiled because the van’s alarm system kicked in, shutting off the engine and sounding a siren, the prosecutor said.

All three men then fled, he said, but Chaney and Green were arrested later that day. Blount was arrested in Las Vegas.

Westra said that evidence will be presented that the getaway car was owned by Chaney and that the defendants were positively identified by a 9-year-old boy who witnessed the robbery attempt.

Throughout Monday’s proceeding, Carrie Statkus, the victim’s wife, watched and took notes during the attorneys’ comments. At a court recess, she said her husband, who was hospitalized more than three months after being shot in the head and the neck, is slowing recovering from the shooting but suffers from memory loss.

The trial, which is simultaneously being heard by two juries--one for each defendant--will resume in Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary ‘s court on Jan. 6.