Ex-Cheerleader Admits Robbing Fullerton Bank

Acknowledging that “the game was up,” a former high school cheerleader pleaded guilty Thursday to robbing a Fullerton bank of $15,000 when she was seven months pregnant.

Elizabeth Hernandez Maddex, 19, and a co-defendant who had previously denied involvement in the crime unexpectedly changed their pleas when they appeared before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor.

Maddex’s attorney, William Dougherty of Villa Park, said his client believed she had virtually no chance of prevailing at trial after Taylor’s rejection of a defense request to suppress key evidence.

Dougherty had unsuccessfully argued that detectives illegally obtained a confession from his client, and other key evidence from her Rowland Heights home.

Among the documents detectives seized from the home was a detailed to-do list that read in part: “Clean tubs, sink, counter and toilets, get ski mask, get police scanner, find escape route, borrow [gun] from someone. . . .”

“There is no sense in going to a trial,” Dougherty said. “The game was up.”

Thursday’s pleas mean that all three defendants in the Feb. 24 robbery of the Bank of America branch at 1821 W. Orangethorpe Ave. have now pleaded guilty.

Earlier this month, Maddex’s husband, 18-year-old Kiefer Kristian Maddex, entered his own guilty plea, implicating his wife and a 28-year-old friend, Larry Thomas Stratton Jr. of Garden Grove.

Assistant U.S. Atty. James W. Spertus said the government was pleased that “all three defendants have begun the process of accepting responsibility.”

The three face up to 25 years in federal prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines they will probably get from four to eight years, defense attorneys said.

The case received widespread publicity because Elizabeth Maddex was seven months pregnant when she and her two male accomplices stormed into the bank, waving guns in the air and screaming at tellers and customers to “get on the floor.”

Police have said that the young woman, who was fired last year from her teller’s position at the same Fullerton bank, masterminded an elaborately planned crime.

In court Thursday, Elizabeth Maddex told the judge how she had suggested that her husband borrow her father’s BB gun so that they could use it in the robbery.

The husband complied, she said.

Elizabeth Maddex was a Rowland High School honors student and cheerleader before meeting Maddex in a college psychology class in 1995. She said they lurched into adulthood in the wrong order, conceiving a child as teenagers without incomes to support the lifestyles they wanted.

Maddex, who is free on bail, gave birth to a girl named Vanessa a month ago.

She and Stratton will return to court Oct. 6 for a pre-sentencing hearing.

Kiefer Maddex will be sentenced Sept. 22.