2 Teens May Be Tried as Adults in Robbery

Two 16-year-olds who are accused of being part of a team of four young men who last week robbed a Newbury Park bank branch were arraigned Tuesday and face the possibility of being tried as adults.

With the mothers of both boys in the courtroom, the two Oxnard juveniles remained silent while Superior Court Judge Melinda Johnson told them separately that they would have a fitness hearing July 17 to determine if they should be tried as adults.

Prosecutor Bill Redmond said that the “vicious nature of the crime,” that weapons were used, that the youths have a previous criminal record and that each were admitted members of an Oxnard gang warranted that they be tried as adults.

The youths and two adults, Juan Plasencia and Jose Ruelas, both 20, allegedly used rifles, handguns and pepper spray in the take-over-style robbery of the First Interstate Bank on Carmen Drive in Newbury Park.

The two adults are awaiting to be transferred to the Metro Detention Center in Los Angeles where they will be arraigned before a U.S. magistrate, said Gary Auer, the supervising agent for the FBI in Ventura County. The men are scheduled to be indicted late next week, Auer said.