FBI Ties Shootout Pair to No More Than 5 Robberies

FBI officials said Tuesday that they have completed an exhaustive examination of bank robberies staged over the past four years and believe that the two men who died in the botched North Hollywood holdup were responsible for no more than five heists.

FBI and Los Angeles Police Department officials say Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasareanu may have committed two armed takeover robberies at a San Fernando Valley Bank of America branch in May 1995, netting more than $1 million.

Authorities are attempting to link the pair to two attempted armored car heists over the past two years in the Valley, and a 1993 attack on an armored car guard outside a Denver bank.

It now appears unlikely that the pair committed any other bank robberies in the Los Angeles area, said William Rehder, who coordinates bank robbery investigations for the FBI’s local office.

“I think we’ve come up with the extent of it,” Rehder said.

So far, police believe the pair used a Granada Hills home as their “safe house” to store their belongings.

In addition, police found a late-model car in a nearby Mission Hills neighborhood last weekend that they believe belonged to the gunmen.

Police found ammunition matching the type used in the violent shootout with police. They also found gasoline bombs, similar to the ones found in the getaway car used by the robbers, sources said.

In other developments Tuesday, the mother of Matasareanu, Valerie Nicolescu, 54, was charged with two felonies--endangering the health of a dependent adult and false imprisonment by violence. She is expected to be arraigned today.

Last week, police searching a Pasadena business property owned by Nicolescu and her son found a 44-year-old schizophrenic woman locked in an upstairs room with no toilet, light or hot water. Nicolescu was arrested Monday.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.