Man Pleads Guilty to 2 Bank Heists
A 31-year-old Oxnard man, who was arrested in two bank holdups after his picture appeared in local newspapers, pleaded guilty to the charges this week in a Los Angeles federal court.
Tommy Santo Miramontes, who in one case reportedly passed a note to a teller saying, “Don’t do anything stupid or you’ll be the first to get hurt,” entered his plea Thursday before U.S. District Judge Matthew Byrne.
Miramontes was nabbed after a tipster saw a photo of him during the holdup that ran in local newspapers, said FBI special agent Gary Auer, who oversees the Ventura office.
Miramontes pleaded guilty to holding up the California Federal Bank on Saviers Road in Oxnard Nov. 1, 1995 and on Nov. 3 holding up the Bank of America a few blocks away on the same street, Auer said.
Earlier this week a Camarillo man, Arnold Joseph Robles, 25, also pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery in federal court.
Robles pleaded guilty to holding up the Home Savings Bank on Telegraph Road in Ventura on Sept. 19 of last year and holding up a Great Western Bank in San Luis Obispo in October.
Both Robles and Miramontes men are set to be sentenced in September, Auer said.
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