Sentencing Begins for Young Couple in Bank Robbery

A former high school wrestling champion 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 pleaded guilty in separate hearings in April to bank robbery charges, then were married three weeks ago by a federal magistrate as their sentencing dates drew near.

Hoult, 21, stood before U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi in Los Angeles on Monday and apologized for robbing the bank Dec. 14. 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, when 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 getaway car.

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,” Garibay said. “I’m just trying to relax. And whatever happens, happens. We can’t do anything about it.”

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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 attended her husband’s sentencing in a sleeveless black cocktail dress, patent-leather heels, a gold necklace and sporting a 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.

At Monday’s hearing, Hoult apologized to the court, Assistant U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. and his own attorney, Assistant U.S. Public Defender Sean Kennedy, “for taking up time that would be spent otherwise, and apologize for doing this without thinking things out before making such a dumb decision.”

“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.

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

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

Garibay was a soccer star at Newbury Park High, where she graduated in 1994. She then joined the Pepperdine Waves soccer team on a partial athletic scholarship.