Local Football Star Pleads Guilty to Robberies : Crime: Sean A. Powell was named Bay League lineman of the year last December. Some say he was headed for a college scholarship. Now, the senior may face 13 years in state prison.

A former Leuzinger High School football star has pleaded guilty to taking part in two robberies, including one in which he attacked a Redondo Beach woman who had given him a bandage for his bleeding hand.

Sean A. Powell, 18, pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he and two other teen-agers on March 1 forced their way into the 64-year-old woman’s Dufour Avenue condominium, bound and gagged her and her husband at gunpoint and then ransacked the unit, making off with about $10,000 in cash and jewelry. The woman opened the door after Powell--as a ruse--claimed he needed a bandage for his hand, which had recently been operated on.

Powell also admitted taking part in a March 3 armed robbery at an Inglewood clothing store in which Powell and three other men bound and threatened the store’s manager before they made off with armloads of clothes and an undisclosed amount of money.

After the March 1 incident, detectives used fingerprints found on duct tape used to bind the couple to track down a 17-year-old suspect. Detectives then followed him and saw him meet Powell, who matched the couple’s physical description of one of their other assailants.

All three victims identified Powell as one of their assailants and Powell confessed his involvement to police, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ralph Shapiro said.

Powell, who has been in custody without bail since spring, is scheduled to appear in Torrance Superior Court on Monday to set a date for his sentencing.

Powell--a 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior linebacker--was named Bay League lineman of the year last December and was placed on The Times’ South Bay All-Star football team.

He also was named to the Bay League’s first offense team in 1990.

His ability on both sides of the ball might have won him a college scholarship, both Shapiro and defense attorney Michael Norris said. But Powell’s involvement in the robberies means he now faces as much as 13 years and eight months in state prison.

“This is sad,” Shapiro said. “Here’s a kid who did some really, really bad things . . . and threw away what chance he had to go to school and do something with his life. He blew it. That’s all gone.”

Because Powell has confessed to police, mailed a letter of apology to the Redondo Beach couple the day after his arrest, and promised to cooperate in further investigations of the robberies, Shapiro said he believes Powell will not be sentenced to the maximum term.

But Shapiro said he will ask the judge to punish Powell with a prison term.

“This is not something he can just apologize for,” Shapiro said. “I think he realizes that now.”

Norris agreed that Powell is extremely remorseful.

“He feels terrible,” Norris said. “It was just a situation that he got caught up with some friends that turned out not to be so good of friends as he’d thought.”

Norris has asked the California Youth Authority to consider incarcerating Powell in one of its facilities so he can finish earning his diploma and prepare himself for college once he is released.

“He was getting national attention and football was really all he wanted to do. It was his career,” Norris said. “We’re hoping to get him back into a situation where he would pull up his grades and prepare himself to get back into that.”