VENTURA : Man Pleads Guilty to Bank Robbery
A 21-year-old Santa Barbara man has pleaded guilty in federal court to robbing a Ventura branch of the Ventura County National Bank in late July, the FBI said Thursday.
Benjamin James Greenspoon was convicted on a federal bank robbery charge after entering his plea Tuesday, authorities said. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 10.
A lone gunman entered the bank at 4730 Telephone Road shortly before 4 p.m. July 27 and demanded money from a teller, Ventura police said.
After showing the teller a gun, the gunman was handed an undetermined amount of cash. He fled the bank and drove away in a BMW, avoiding several police checkpoints.
Charlie J. Parsons, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said in a news release that a joint investigation by Ventura police and the FBI resulted in the vehicle being traced.
Greenspoon was arrested Aug. 20 when he turned himself in at the California Department of Corrections parole office in Santa Barbara. Greenspoon also admitted that he held up a Santa Barbara bank seven days before the Ventura robbery, Parsons said.
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