Robber of banks in Turlock, Ripon, elsewhere sentenced

A Stockton man was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years and eight months in prison for six bank robberies, including two in Turlock and Ripon in 2011.

In each of the robberies, which were committed in 2010-11, Phillip Dale Selfa carried a box or satchel into the financial institution, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He displayed a purported detonator and told bank personnel he could set off explosives that were supposedly in the box or satchel, which he left in the bank as he exited.

After each robbery, the bank was closed and streets around it were barricaded for bomb squad personnel. The bombs and detonators always were found to be fake.

Selfa, now 63, was arrested in May 2011. On July 7 of last year, he pleaded guilty to robbing the following banks:

▪ Dec. 27, 2010, Bank of Stockton in Pine Grove, for $2,000

▪ Jan. 13, 2011, Bank of the West in Lockeford, for $4,000

▪ Feb. 25, 2011, Farmers and Merchants Bank in Linden, for $351

▪ March 30, 2011, Westamerica Bank in Turlock, for $4,500

▪ April 29, 2011, Bank of the West in Ripon, for $3,050

▪ May 5, 2011, Bank of the West in Lodi, for $4,037

This case was investigated by the FBI, the Modesto and Stockton police departments and the Amador, San Joaquin and Stanislaus sheriff’s departments.

At the time of Selfa’s arrest, an article in The Bee said the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department reported its detectives, investigating the robberies in Linden and Lockeford, followed DNA evidence and took him into custody at his home. The Sheriff’s Department said Selfa then implicated himself in four other bank robberies.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Robber of banks in Turlock, Ripon, elsewhere sentenced."