‘2 Defendants in bold robbery deserve significant jail terms’

A Superior Court judge believes that people who rob an establishment even it has surveillance cameras and a security guard must be given significant jail terms.

Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona said such bold conduct deserves a sufficient prison term to deter defendants as well as others from attempting the same crime again.

Manglona ordered poker arcade robbers Anthony DLG. Campos and Patrick Camacho Ito to spend two years in prison without the possibility of parole or early release.

The judge sentenced Campos to 10 years in prison, all suspended, except for the first 24 months and with credit for nine days he has already served.

Ito was sentenced to six years in prison, all suspended, except for the first 24 months and with credit for nine days he has already served.

Campos and Ito will be placed on probation for five years after release from jail. They will be required to each pay a $500 fine and $100 court assessment fee. The two were also ordered to perform 200 hours of community work service.

The defendants were ordered to pay their pro-rata share of the total restitution of $4,045 or $1,011.25 each to Golden Poker in Afetnas.

In addition, Campos will be required to pay $368 in restitution to Jenny’s Mart in Dandan.

Campos was directed to write a letter of apology to the victims, Muhammad Omark Farul and Ying Li.

Campos, 21, pleaded guilty to one count of robbery. He is the third of the four defendants in this case to enter a guilty plea.

In her order, Manglona said Campos was 20 years old when he committed this serious crime of robbery and was the oldest of the group.

Manglona said that robbery is punishable by a maximum term of 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of $10,000 because the defendants or an accomplice threatened to use immediate force, and actually used a dangerous weapon to commit the crime.

The judge said although this is the defendants’ first adult criminal conviction, it is alarming that it is a serious felony offense.

According to the detective’s report, Manglona said, Campos was the person who confronted the security guard with a crowbar at Golden Poker last year.

Campos directed the guard and a customer to a corner while his two accomplices entered the cashier’s booth. He committed these acts in a poker establishment that had surveillance cameras, Manglona said.

The government and Campos originally agreed to a negotiated plea term of six years imprisonment, all suspended except for 20 months without the possibility of parole.

But Manglona rejected the plea agreement because the unsuspended prison sentence is less than Ito’s, even though Campos’s disposition will also dismiss the second robbery case he committed against a small store (Jenny’s Mart) only six months after the first case, and while he was released on bail for this poker room robbery case.

The parties renegotiated their plea agreement to incorporate Manglona’s concerns and increased the unsuspended prison term to 24 months, making it the same as Ito, as well as increasing the suspended prison term to eight years.

For these reasons, Manglona said, she found the parties’ amended plea agreement terms reasonable.

“The 24 months prison term without parole has the equivalent effect of a six-year sentence to serve, but receiving the benefit of being paroled by the Board of Parole,” the judge noted.

Furthermore, she added, the increased suspended term from four years to eight years will serve as a strong deterrence on Campos, giving him reason to refrain from committing serious crimes in the future because it subjects him to a long prison sentence if he fails to comply with any of his conditions of suspended sentence.

With respect to the 20-year-old Ito, Manglona said the defendant was only 19 when he committed this serious crime of robbery.

According to the detective’s report, Ito was the person who broke the cashier’s booth and took the money.

He committed these acts in a poker establishment that had a security guard present and surveillance cameras, Manglona said, citing the detective’s report.

For these reasons, the judge said, she found the parties’ negotiated plea terms reasonable.