Marine sentenced to eight years for three-state robbery spree

SAN DIEGO - A former Marine who stole more than $70,000 in a string of West Coast bank robberies apologized, then was sentenced to the maximum eight years in prison.

Benjamin Michael Johns, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery in California, Washington and Oregon.

U.S. District Judge William Enright rejected his lawyer's request Monday for a more lenient sentence.

''I really don't have any sympathy for you in connection with what happened,'' Enright said. The robberies ''traumatized too many people,'' the judge explained.

Fellow Marine Nicholas Paul Hills, 21, of Juneau, Wis., has pleaded guilty to the same charges and is set to be sentenced June 5.

Johns turned to robbery because he was addicted to cocaine, which ''clouded his judgment'' and made him desperate for money, attorney Howard Frank argued.

''His conduct can only be described as outrageous. ... There is absolutely no excuse,'' Frank told the judge.

Hills and Johns fled Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, in August after a base newspaper published photos of the two Marines from a bank security camera.

The FBI had asked the paper to run the photos because the suspects looked like Marines.

Before their spree began, Johns bragged that he had a girlfriend at a Bank of America in Carlsbad who gave him advice on how to rob a bank and avoid having the surveillance camera take a good photo of him, according to court records.

The girlfriend no longer works at the bank and was not charged in the case, said Randy Jones, a federal prosecutor.

Johns and Hills, who have since received less-than-honorable discharges, were lance corporals and members of a front-line Marine combat unit at Camp Pendleton. Neither had a history of significant discipline problems at the base, officials said.

Their Marine unit went to Okinawa, Japan, in November 1998 and returned in the late spring of 1999. During their overseas deployment, Johns bought the gun that was used in the robberies, according to court papers.

In the robberies, which occurred between October 1998 and October 1999, Johns appeared to be in charge, entering the bank first, waving a pistol and ordering people to the floor. Hills acted as a lookout or jumped over the counter to take money from the drawers, authorities said.

''He has terrorized a countless number of bank employees,'' Jones said.

Hills was arrested Oct. 27 in Portland, Ore., and Johns two days later in Idaho.

Although each pleaded guilty to four robberies, Johns actually committed seven and Hills participated in five of those, Jones said.

The first robberies were in communities near the base. They were followed by heists in Palo Alto, Tukwila, Wash.; and Portland, Ore.

Hills and Johns spent money from the heists on two used Ford Mustang convertibles, clothes, and a trip to Baja California, Mexico, Jones said.