GARDEN GROVE : 3rd Man Convicted in Botched Robbery

The last of three men charged with a botched robbery in Garden Grove that left an armored car driver critically wounded was convicted Friday of attempted murder.

A Superior Court jury also convicted Gilbert Green, 22, of Ontario on charges of armed robbery, assault with a firearm and conspiracy to commit robbery, as well as on three sentencing enhancements of using a firearm. Green faces a maximum of 11 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 28.

A co-defendant, Thomas Anthony Chaney, 28, also of Ontario, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28 on the same charges. Chaney, who had once worked for the armored car company the men tried to rob, was convicted Jan. 17.

In an unusual procedure, Green and Chaney were tried before separate juries in the same courtroom, although both juries did not hear all of the same witnesses or arguments. The two juries did listen to the testimony of a number of witnesses at the same time, however.

A third co-defendant in the case, Marc A. Blount, 25, of Pomona, described by prosecutors as the triggerman, was sentenced Jan. 10 to 25 years in prison.

The three men were convicted of robbing a Wells Fargo Armored Car Services truck last May 16, after driver John Statkus serviced an automated teller machine at a Garden Grove bank.

Statkus, 25, of Fullerton was shot three times, including once in the head, before the three robbers fled without the $185,400 in the vehicle. Statkus sustained serious brain damage as a result of the shooting, but his wife says he has been making considerable progress as a result of physical therapy.

Carrie Statkus, who was in the courtroom Friday, said she was pleased by the verdict but would be happier after the last sentences were pronounced.

The verdict was “not altogether unexpected,” said Donald G. Rubright, Green’s attorney. “With a crime of this significant planning and this seriousness and the seriousness of the injury, I’m not surprised. From a defense perspective, we won our victories when we eliminated those counts that carried the possibility of life as an indeterminate sentence.”