A previously convicted Mexican national who acted as a getaway driver and recruiter for a Los Angeles-based bank robbery ring was sentenced Tuesday to almost a dozen years in federal prison.
Daniel “Malo” Ochoa, 27, helped organize a series of armed bank robberies, including heists at a OneWest Bank branch in San Marino in July 2016, a First Bank location in Arcadia in August 2016, and a Citibank in Bakersfield a few weeks later.
At each of the three robberies, a gun was pointed at tellers. Though no physical injuries were reported, prosecutors wrote that such crimes “leave lasting stress and trauma that victims remember, and live with, for their entire lives.”
Ochoa — among five defendants charged in the robberies — pleaded guilty in March in Los Angeles federal court to one count of armed bank robbery. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert H. Whaley to 140 months behind bars and ordered to pay about $50,000 in restitution.
Along with driving a getaway car, Ochoa recruited a member of the gang and directed his part in the ring, prosecutors said.
The defendant is currently serving a 15-year sentence in state prison for dissuading a witness by force or intimidation in association with a street gang, according to court records. In 2007, he was convicted of second-degree robbery with a handgun, court papers show.
Two members of the ring, Mark Spencer and Orlando Soto-Forcey, were previously sentenced to about 12 years in federal prison for their roles in the conspiracy. Two others, Gary Lamar Henry and Edgar Santos, are scheduled to be sentenced in March.