Bank Robber Sentenced After Saying I Did and I Do

A former high school wrestling champ who held up a Westlake Village bank was sentenced to 57 months in prison Monday as his new bride--who also faces sentencing for driving the getaway car--looked on sadly.

Todd Hoult and Tabetha Garibay earlier pleaded guilty to bank robbery charges in the Dec. 14 holdup, then were married just three weeks ago by a federal magistrate as their sentencing dates loomed.

Hoult, 21, stood before U.S. District Court Judge Robert M. Takasugi on Monday and apologized for robbing the bank. Garibay, 23, sat in the audience behind him. Her sentencing is set for Aug. 12.

Before Hoult’s sentencing hearing began Monday, Garibay spoke of the strain of arranging a marriage at the same time the couple were making their way through the federal criminal justice system.

Garibay of Newbury Park said she and Hoult were engaged before Dec. 14, the day federal authorities say the pair robbed the Coast Federal Bank in Westlake Village--him with a ski mask and semiautomatic pistol, her at the wheel of the gold Corvette that was their getaway car.

But U.S. Magistrate Virginia Phillips, who agreed to perform the ceremony at the U.S. District Courthouse on Spring Street, married the pair July 17.

“It’s been hard,” she said. “I’m just trying to relax. And whatever happens, happens. We can’t do anything about it.”

Garibay is out on bail, still making sales calls for a Newbury Park telemarketing firm while awaiting sentencing. She has been told she could get a sentence of 24 to 36 months, she said.

The former Newbury Park High soccer star said little about her dalliance with crime, vowing only to carry on their marriage as best she can from wherever she serves her time.

She showed up for her new husband’s sentencing dressed in a sleeveless black cocktail dress, patent-leather heels, a gold necklace and gold-and-diamond engagement-wedding ring set.

Handcuffed and dressed in a blue button-down shirt, dark slacks and brown sandals, Hoult shuffled past her in the hallway before the hearing, looking at his bride with an appraising grin.

“Hey, baby, you look good,” the former Moorpark College wrestler murmured as federal marshals marched him into the courtroom.

“Hi,” she replied, then followed him inside.

With Assistant U.S. Public Defender Sean Kennedy at his side, Hoult rose to face the judge, as Assistant U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. looked on.

“I first would like to apologize to the court and Mr. Birotte and my lawyer for taking up time that would be spent otherwise, and apologize for doing this without thinking things out before making such a dumb decision,” Hoult said.

“I know I’m at a point in my life where I could go either way, and I’m prepared to try to go the right way,” he said. “I’m setting goals for myself for what I’d like to do here and after I get out so I can stay on the right path and not go the wrong way again.”

Hoult also apologized to the bank and to its employees--who were forced to the floor at gunpoint during the robbery, federal authorities say.

Takasugi then passed sentence: Hoult is to spend four years and nine months in prison, pay $1,800 in restitution to Coast Federal Savings, undergo outpatient treatment and random testing for drug and alcohol abuse once he is released, and report any attempts to obtain a driver’s license or Social Security number to the federal probation officer for five years after his release.

Before their arrests, Hoult and Garibay had excelled in scholastic sports.

Hoult, formerly of Simi Valley, wrestled for Agoura High, winning the California Interscholastic Federation Division I championship before he graduated in 1991 and went on to wrestle at Moorpark College.

Garibay booted a soccer ball as the star forward for the Newbury Park High School team until she graduated in 1994 and joined the Pepperdine Waves soccer team on a partial athletic scholarship.

But on Dec. 14, investigators say, the two did something decidedly unscholastic:

They drove up to the Coast Federal Bank. As Garibay waited, Hoult pulled on a black ski mask, hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses, picked up a semiautomatic handgun and went inside.

There, investigators say, he forced two to three employees to the floor with the gun, grabbed $8,925 and fled to the Corvette, which sped away down an alley behind Westlake Medical Center.

Police and FBI agents found the car abandoned less than 90 minutes later in a Thousand Oaks parking lot--inside were two airline tickets to North Carolina, where some of Hoult’s relatives live.

Agents later tracked down Hoult through a specially marked $5 bill that was part of the money used by an unidentified friend to wire money to Hoult in Las Vegas. Agents later established that Garibay drove the Corvette and arrested her.