Defendant receives 18-month prison sentence in federal bank robbery case

Michael Charles Garcia was sentenced to 18 months in prison Thursday in Las Vegas in a 2012 bank robbery case that disrupted the federal court system.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey told Garcia he would get credit for time served for the roughly nine months he spent behind bars prior to striking a plea agreement.

Dorsey also ordered Garcia to pay more than $2,200 in restitution and serve two years of supervised release after he gets out of prison. He has until June 27 to surrender to federal prison authorities.

Federal prosecutors originally did not oppose probation for Garcia, but they soured on the deal last month after the 22-year-old Garcia was pushed by his mother into attempting to withdraw the guilty plea.

Garcia gave up the effort, but prosecutors said they intended to seek prison time, arguing Garcia violated the terms of the July plea agreement by trying to withdraw it.

Prosecutors saw the move to withdraw the plea as the latest in a series of efforts by his mother, Katrina Garcia, to meddle in the case.

In a sentencing memorandum last week, the younger Garcia’s latest lawyer, Paola Armeni, said Garcia was a victim of his “mother’s forceful and controlling nature” and no longer was communicating with her.

Armeni told Dorsey on Thursday that Garcia was preparing to move on without his mother in his life. She argued for a split sentence of 18 months — 9 in prison and 9 at the federal halfway house where Garcia is currently residing. Armeni also sought credit for time served.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Amber Craig asked for a 27-month prison term, saying Garcia has not truly accepted responsibility for his actions.

“I think he needs prison time,” Craig told Dorsey. “That’s what will send a message to him and others.”

Armeni created a stir last month in her motion to withdraw Garcia’s plea, when she reiterated what Katrina Garcia had been saying for months that the younger Garcia was “pressured” and “coerced” into accepting the plea deal.

Craig contended in her response that the original deal for probation was a “generous” offer and Garcia was under no duress at all.

The prosecutor argued that Garcia’s mother persuaded her son into reneging on the deal and in the process created all sorts of problems for the court system.

Katrina Garcia, who has said she is an unemployed paralegal, once was warned by a federal magistrate to stop filing documents behind the back of her son’s former attorney, Todd Leventhal, seeking to derail the plea agreement.

Her son had confessed to the FBI to driving the getaway car in the $1,600 robbery of a Citibank branch on Jan. 31, 2012, authorities said.

But he didn’t plead guilty in connection with that crime.

Instead, he pleaded guilty to attempting to pull off the robbery of a City National Bank branch before the Citibank robbery.

In his agreement with prosecutors, Garcia acknowledged that he went inside the City National Bank but failed to carry out the robbery.

He admitted that from there he drove his co-defendant, Matthew Dale Dewberry, to the Citibank robbery.

Dewberry, 41, who said in court his real name is Robert Gruscynski, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank robbery and one count of bank robbery. He is waiting to be sentenced.

Garcia’s mother tipped off the FBI to Dewberry’s involvement in the Citibank robbery and has been trying to collect reward money from the agency. The tip, however, also led the FBI to the younger Garcia.

Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow him on Twitter @JGermanRJ.