Police: Teen girl helped plan, carry out robbery

By LESLIE ALBRECHT
lalbrecht@modbee.com

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The Oakdale teenager who accompanied her 19-year-old boyfriend on a string of robberies across four states earlier this month was an accomplice, not a victim, police said.

The 16-year-old girl, whose name was not released because of her age, was arrested Aug. 12 and charged with robbery and conspiracy in connection with the Aug. 7 robbery of the McDonald's on East F Street in Oakdale. She is in custody at Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall, said Chief Probation Officer Jerry Powers.

The girl told Oakdale police that she was involved in the planning of the Oakdale robbery and confessed to being present during the crime, Oakdale Police Chief Marty West said.

PDF: Route of crime spree

The girl and her boyfriend, Samuel Isidro Ramirez, are former employees of the Oakdale McDonald's, West said.

The couple, both Oakdale residents, are suspected of holding up the McDonald's with a fake gun. That robbery reportedly touched off a multistate crime spree that ended two days later in Texas. Authorities said the couple robbed or attempted to rob several McDonald's restaurants and at least one Jack in the Box in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The pair followed Interstate 10, the highway that stretches from Los Angeles to Florida.

In town after town, the suspects used the same strategy, officials said. They ordered food from the drive-through window, then brandished a fake gun at the clerk. In some cases the tactic failed. A clerk in Eloy, Ariz., closed the drive-through window and ducked below the counter until the would-be robbers drove away. In Deming, N.M., a clerk told the couple that only managers had access to money; the suspects left empty-handed.

But the strategy worked at least twice and the robbers made off with cash.

Police caught the couple in Fort Hancock, Texas, a town of about 3,000 residents along the Mexican border. A Hudspeth County sheriff's deputy pulled over Ramirez and the girl after they ran a stop sign. Deputies found the girl's name in a nationwide database of runaways; Ramirez showed up as a possible kidnapping suspect.

When authorities realized Ramirez and the girl were wanted in connection with fast food restaurant robberies in El Paso and in other states, they were detained. Ramirez was charged with aggravated robbery and booked at the El Paso County Jail. He's being held on $50,000 bail. He faces charges in at least four other cities.

No charges have been filed against the girl in connection with the robberies in Eloy or El Paso. Police in other jurisdictions could not be reached for comment.

After the couple was arrested, the girl's parents made arrangements to bring her back to California, West said. When she arrived in Oakdale, her parents took her to meet with police detectives. In that interview, the girl confessed to participating in the Oakdale robbery.

She is scheduled to make her first court appearance Friday.

Bee staff writer Leslie Albrecht can be reached at lalbrecht@modbee.com or 578-2378.