Robber Given 20-Year Prison Term

A man who led Orange County Sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase through Orange and Los Angeles counties after robbing a Lake Forest bank last year was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison, authorities said.

Officials said Juan Lemond Taylor, 43, took $6,136 from the California Federal Bank branch on El Toro Road in a Nov. 6 robbery. A sheriff’s deputy spotted Taylor’s green Cutlass shortly afterward and pulled him over for a traffic violation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey M. Rawitz said.

After stopping for the deputy, Taylor drove off again, leading police on an hourlong chase at speeds up to 125 mph, officials said. The pursuit ended when Taylor’s car blew a tire in Anaheim, Rawitz said.

Taylor fled the car with the money hidden in a ski cap and tried to escape by running across several lanes of traffic, authorities said. He was arrested after climbing over a barbed-wire fence as bills flew out of the cap.

Taylor, sentenced in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, received the maximum penalty because he had two previous convictions for attempted bank robbery, including another incident that involved a high-speed chase, Rawitz said.