A 52-year-old Garden Grove man was charged Thursday with a string of eight robberies in Orange County.
David Cruz Zamarripa Jr. was charged with seven felony counts of second-degree robbery and a count of first-degree robbery at an automatic teller machine with sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a gun, according to court records.
The defendant was arrested Tuesday, according to Garden Grove Police Department Sgt. Nick Jensen.
Police were investigating a string of armed robberies since the start of the year and noticed that five had similar characteristics, according to the department.
Detectives contacted law enforcement agencies elsewhere in the county and learned there were three more outside of Garden Grove that matched the same method of operation, police said.
Police arrested Zamarripa, who was under surveillance, as he was leaving a motel in Garden Grove, and said they recovered evidence from the robberies as well as a possible weapon used in the holdups.
The dates of the robberies were Jan. 2, 5, 7, 12, 16 and 18, according to court records. The robberies were in Garden Grove, Anaheim and in Los Angeles, according to the criminal complaint.
Zamarripa was convicted of robbery in Los Angeles County Sept. 14, 1995, according to the complaint. He was also convicted Oct. 28, 1993, in L.A. County of assault with a deadly weapon, according to the complaint.
The defendant did not enter a plea at his arraignment in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana on Thursday. He is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 14 in the West Justice Center in Westminster.