Ventura, Oxnard : 3 Guilty of Robbery; Another Sentenced

Three men were convicted and one man was sentenced this week for charges relating to two bank robberies in Ventura and Oxnard.

In one case, Robert Johnson, 34, William Rogers, 30, and George Earl Young, 21 entered guilty pleas to federal bank robbery charges in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles.

On July 1, the three men entered the Wells Fargo Bank at 101 S. Chestnut St. in Ventura at 10:30 a.m. Authorities said that while one man held a gun on bank employees, the other two jumped the teller counter and emptied drawers. They left with $17,000, said Gary Auer, head of the FBI office in Ventura County.

Witnesses identified the getaway car, which was later spotted heading south on the Ventura Freeway by Ventura police, who began a high-speed chase. The police arrested the men and recovered the money after the getaway car crashed into a tree in a residential Oxnard neighborhood, Auer said.

The three men, all of Los Angeles, were also charged with using a weapon during a crime and will be sentenced Jan. 25. They could face a maximum of 25 years and fines up to $10,000.

In a separate case, Juaquin Armando Menendez of Oxnard was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years in federal prison for robbing a bank last December.

Menendez, 34, was arrested in May for the Dec. 12 robbery of the California Federal Bank at 2900 Saviers Road in Oxnard.

Menendez entered the bank, claimed to have a weapon and received $1,550 from a bank teller, Auer said.

After serving his sentence, Menendez will be on parole for three years, Auer said.