Grandmother Who Tried to Rob Gas Station Gets Probation

As she received three years probation in a plea bargain, a 71-year-old West Covina woman apologized in court Friday to the gas station attendant she had tried to rob with a vintage gun, blaming her actions on her use of Prozac.

Mary Ruth Blanco sobbed as Deputy Dist.Atty. James Belna read the plea agreement, citing her age, poor health and lack of a criminal record as the reason for plea bargaining a felony with a firearm. In return for Blanco pleading no contest to attempted robbery, prosecutors dropped an allegation of using a gun during a crime, allowing Blanco to avoid a mandatory minimum prison sentence of four years.

As a condition of probation, Blanco could still receive up to a year in jail when she is formally sentenced Aug. 29, but prosecutors said they did not plan to ask for any jail time.

“I’m deeply sorry for what I did,” Blanco told Rafael Chavez, a West Covina gas station attendant Friday. “I’m sorry for any inconvenience I caused you, but they had me on that medicine, Prozac. And I was allergic to it.”

Judge David S. Milton approved the plea bargain after speaking with Chavez and the attorneys in chambers. “The only thing I wanted was an apology from her,” Chavez said he told the judge. He said that he does not want to see Blanco go to jail.

Previously, Blanco had said a letter from the IRS threatening to garnish her husband’s pension and imminent foreclosure on their home for unpaid property taxes spurred her May 4 robbery attempt.