McGrath Convicted of Armed Bank Robberies : Crime: Jurors discount the West Hills man’s insanity defense. He had said God chose him to commit the crimes.

With a jury rejecting the defense that God told him to rob banks, James Ambrose McGrath was convicted Monday of stealing nearly $1 million in nine separate robberies throughout the San Fernando Valley.

With his head held high, McGrath, 49, swallowed hard several times as the verdict convicting him of 18 counts of armed bank robbery and weapons violations was read before U. S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp.

McGrath had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The prosecutors, Assistant U. S. Atty. Kendra McNally and Assistant U. S. Atty. Christopher Tayback, said they were pleased.

“Jurors resolved issues presented by the evidence in a manner we feel is consistent with what was charged in the indictment, which was a series of violent crimes,” McNally said.

Throughout the trial prosecutors portrayed McGrath as a meticulous thief who went to great lengths to avoid capture--using disguises and a series of getaway cars--and who robbed for money that he would use for rent on a lavish house and to purchase cars and motorcycles.

McGrath’s attorney, John D. Robertson, had urged jurors to find his client insane, arguing that he suffers from a severe mental defect that prevented him from realizing the moral wrongfulness of his acts.

During the trial, McGrath’s two brothers testified that they had been diagnosed as manic depressive and one of the men told jurors that their father had died in a mental institution. A Van Nuys psychiatrist also testified that McGrath suffered from a delusional disorder.

When he is sentenced by Hupp on Dec. 13, McGrath faces a maximum of 225 years in prison on the bank robbery charges and 165 additional years for the weapons violations.

“This is a very frustrating case because essentially what you’re going to do is warehouse--lock up for the rest of his natural life--a person who is mentally ill,” Robertson said. “It’s just one more person we put into a cage.”

McGrath testified during his trial that he knew it was morally wrong to rob banks but he believed that it was not wrong for him because he had been preordained by God to carry out the acts. He also testified that God told him to use gloves, wear disguises and have his getaway van serviced.

It was that testimony, said juror Michael Thomas, that left him believing that McGrath was trying to con the jury. Thomas, 55, of Cerritos, said he and his fellow jurors grappled over the insanity issue, but despite the medical records and expert testimony “it just wasn’t enough.”

“Robertson did a very good job, but it was the defendant himself who became unbelievable,” Thomas said.

The jury foreman, Keith Walker, 22, of Apple Valley, said there were too many inconsistencies in McGrath’s testimony.

“Him saying the Lord told him to do this was ridiculous to me,” Walker said. “What it finally came down to was whether he thought the Lord really told him to do it or was he making it up?”

Walker said that even if McGrath believed that God told him to rob the banks, he believed that McGrath knew “what he did was morally wrong.”

McGrath was tried separately from co-defendant Gilbert David Michaels, 48, who in March was found incompetent to stand trial and is now being held at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn.

The FBI captured the two men in March, 1992, just moments after the robbery of a Home Savings of America branch in Woodland Hills. They were eventually charged with committing nine robberies, including one in Tarzana that allegedly netted them $430,000, the most ever taken in a Los Angeles bank robbery.

Authorities discovered a cache of 119 guns and more than 27,000 rounds of ammunition during a search of the luxurious, four-story rented house the two men shared in West Hills, according to court records. Under the house, FBI agents said they discovered a military-style bunker complete with thick fire doors and a shooting range.

McGrath is the author of a 300-page document about Michaels’ life and the pair’s stated belief that a massive conspiracy, involving banks and a jealous candy maker, systematically worked to destroy Michaels’ fudge business.

In a telephone interview, Rose Ann Michaels, Gilbert Michaels’ wife, said she remained confident that the time would come when the truth about her husband and McGrath would be revealed.

“I know that everything he is saying is the truth and that where he is coming from is the right place,” she said. “But it’s God’s will. It’s just not the time. I think things will come to a head with Gilbert’s trial, so much will come out.”