Bank Robber Ordered to 65 Months in Prison

A Garden Grove man was sentenced Monday to 65 months in prison for his role in a bank robbery authorities said was planned by a former cheerleader and ex-bank employee who was pregnant at the time.

Larry Thomas Stratton Jr., 28, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor to repay more than $8,000 to Bank of America.

Under terms of his sentencing, the self-employed scuba instructor and surfer will be supervised for five years after his release.

Stratton was one of three masked people who burst into the Fullerton bank Feb. 24 and got away with more than $15,000.

Kiefer Kristian Maddex, 18, and his wife, Elizabeth Hernandez Maddex, 19, pleaded guilty earlier this year to being the other two. They will be sentenced Nov. 12 and Nov. 6, respectively.

During the robbery, bank employees became suspicious that one of the robbers was a former employee because she used insider terms and demanded specific keys to mini-vaults.

Bank officials later went over the names of former employees and came up with Elizabeth Maddex, along with the notation that she had been fired last year under suspicion of embezzlement.

Maddex, who was seven months pregnant, was arrested within an hour of the robbery after police, armed with a partial license plate number, spotted her vehicle and pulled her over.

Maddex, who later delivered a daughter, told The Times in an interview that she and her husband had married young and wanted a lifestyle they could not afford.