Stripper Bilked 71-Year-Old Man, Jurors Are Told

The 71-year-old admirer told the stripper that he loved her. The stripper, he later said, told him they should get married.

During their 15-month courtship, Joseph Nakashima testified, he gave Robin Goebel of Simi Valley more than $56,000, including $5,200 for breast-augmentation surgery.

But when Goebel invited him to her home for a belated Valentine’s Day celebration on Feb. 16, Nakashima testified in Ventura County Superior Court on Thursday, a man barged in waving a .38 special and saying he would hurt Goebel unless he was given $80,000.

Later that day, police told Nakashima that he had been had.

Simi Valley police arrested Goebel, 30, on Feb. 17. The fake hit man, Louis Ottilo of Canyon Country, was arrested several days later. Prosecutors charged them both with trying to extort Nakashima.

Goebel faces up to four years in prison. Because he used a handgun in the alleged extortion attempt, the 57-year-old Ottilo faces a maximum 15-year term.

During opening statements Thursday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Audry Rohn said Goebel had shamelessly swindled a frail old man who had fallen in love with her watching her dance at the Jetstrip Cabaret, a nude bar near LAX.

Nakashima, a Gardena resident, told the jury that Goebel kept asking him for money, saying she had to pay for jewelry a friend had stolen, for restraining orders against two abusive boyfriends and for rent.

He said he borrowed from his credit union and got advances from his credit cards because he did not want to see her get hurt.

“This case is about greed,” Rohn said. “This case is about betrayal.”

Defense attorneys for Goebel and Ottilo declined to make opening statements Thursday.

Because Nakashima cared for Goebel and longed for a future with her, he said, he gave her money periodically.

It began with several hundred dollars at a time, most of which Goebel promised to pay back, he testified. But Goebel kept returning to Nakashima with new, weightier problems, he said, and the demands grew.

On Feb. 16, Nakashima testified, Goebel invited him to her home in Simi Valley to drink some wine and exchange the Valentine’s Day gifts they had purchased for each other.

They also intended to discuss plans for marriage, he said.

Nakashima said he had told Goebel numerous times that he loved her and wanted to marry her. Before he paid $20,000 to ward off a former boyfriend of hers, he said, she had always said marriage was a bad idea because Nakashima would not be able to handle her two young boys.

But she changed her mind after the incident, he said.

But shortly after he arrived in her apartment, Ottilo came in with a gun, Nakashima testified. Ottilo pointed the weapon at both him and Goebel, Nakashima said, and then he brandished a knife and demanded $80,000.

Frightened, he agreed to drive to his bank in Torrance with Goebel and the gunman to get $40,000 and save Goebel from harm, Nakashima testified. Goebel told Ottilo she would raise the rest, Nakashima said.

He tried to withdraw $40,000 in cash, but a teller said she could not give him the money, and the three drove back to Simi Valley. There, Nakashima agreed to give Ottilo the money the next day, he testified.

Ottilo then left, and Goebel drank some wine and opened her Valentine’s Day present, Nakashima testified.

Meanwhile, the bank teller grew suspicious and called Torrance police, who took Nakashima into custody when he returned that day to try and get the money.

Simi Valley detectives picked Nakashima up from the Torrance police station and interrogated him about the circumstances surrounding the incident. They taped a telephone conversation between Nakashima and Goebel late that night, discussing how he would get the money.

Detective Karl Becker testified Thursday that he and a team of detectives surveyed Goebel’s home Feb. 17 and followed her to Canyon Country, where they saw her meet Ottilo. The pair then drove to Simi Valley in separate cars, he said.

Nakashima, who grew emotional during his testimony, will return to the stand when the case resumes Monday.