Harvard Student Detailed Holdups, Court Records Show

Jose Luis Razo Jr., the Harvard student whom police call the “ski-mask bandit,” told detectives that he took $27,000 during robberies in La Habra, Costa Mesa, Whittier and Miami, Fla., and that he fired a pistol in two of the holdups, according to court documents filed Thursday.

La Habra police said Thursday that they had suspected Razo, 20, of several robberies for more than a year and had placed him under surveillance. At one point last summer, La Habra Police Capt. Michael Burch said, officers confronted Razo, but he denied any involvement.

Razo was to have been arraigned Thursday in North Orange County Municipal Court on eight counts of armed robbery in La Habra and one count of attempted escape. But the arraignment was postponed until July 15 to allow Razo’s attorney to study the bewildering case of a seemingly all-American success story gone wrong.

When Razo, in mustard-yellow jail jump suit, entered the courtroom holding cell for the hearing, his mother, Guadalupe, wiped tears from beneath her sunglasses at the first glimpse of a son that she had not seen for three emotion-wracked days.

“No one can understand why,” she said in a low, sad voice to a courtroom visitor. “My friends say my son had big times and now he has big failures.”

Police have no explanation for the rash of robberies that they allege were committed by Razo, a scholar and football player who donated his time working in the community, planting trees, and visiting convalescent homes and children’s hospital wards.

But court records show that Razo’s current arrest is not his first brush with the law. On June 9, 1986, Razo was arrested for grand theft. The charge later was reduced to a misdemeanor and eventually dropped last month “in the interest of justice.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Moy said the case, involving the theft of about $170, was dismissed because of “witness and identification problems.”

Burch said that although detectives had suspected since last summer that Razo was the “ski-mask bandit,” they did not--and do not--know for certain what prompted the promising young man to pull a gun and rob, as he has said he did.

Sometime early last summer, officers “developed information that he might be our suspect,” Burch said, refusing to elaborate on the information or the source of it. Burch said detectives subsequently set up surveillances on Razo, following him from his home to various destinations.

“We thought he’d burned (noticed) the surveillance because he’d go out and just drive around and not hit anything,” Burch said. “But according to him, he never knew we were around.”

The fruitless stakeouts became too costly and were abandoned, Burch said.

Razo netted $7,165 from the eight La Habra holdups, Burch said. According to the district attorney’s complaint, Razo admitted to police that he committed those holdups and one each in Whittier, Costa Mesa and Miami, netting a $27,000 total.

In North Orange County Municipal Court, Judge Robert B. Huston granted the arraignment delay requested by attorney Michael R. McConnell, who was retained Wednesday by Razo’s family. McConnell said after the hearing that he has not yet decided to accept the case, adding, “I’m still investigating.”

Capt. Burch said Razo appeared to be “a real clean-cut kid” who “looks like the kid you’d want to have living next door.”

Those who know Razo were also at a loss Thursday to explain the illegal acts allegedly committed by a young man they looked up to.

“I don’t believe it. He was too smart to throw it down the drain. He had everything going for him,” said Mario Toro, 14, at the La Habra Boys Club, where Razo had been president of the leadership group.

“He was a role model for all the kids in the club,” said Carlos Romo, 20, the 1985-86 Boys Club National Youth of the Year, who has known Razo since they were 8-year-olds playing intramural sports at the club.

“I’m just shocked by it. It’s really tough to hear. A lot of people are confused and wondering why.”

Burch said police have “absolutely no evidence of, at least, injectable type of drugs, and we have no evidence of any gang activity.”

‘Trying to Keep Up?’

“It’s all speculation as far as what he used the money for,” Burch said. “Your guess is as good as mine. Even though he had a scholarship, I’m sure he had expenses at Harvard, even just hamburgers and malts, and I imagine just trying to keep up socially at Harvard got expensive. It’s just speculation, though.”

Burch divulged more details Thursday about the so-called “ski-mask bandit” robberies. After the third holdup, which occurred July 3, 1986, the police investigation focused on the 6-foot, 200-pound Razo.

In each of the La Habra robberies, Burch said, the bandit used a pistol, wore a crudely fashioned knit ski cap with eyeholes cut out and appeared to his victims to be “a relatively young person” because of “his hands, his hair . . . his voice.”

“They all commented on the fact that he looked like he was in real good shape,” Burch added.

The first holdup occurred at 8:40 p.m. the day after Christmas, 1985, when a man carrying a semiautomatic pistol and wearing a knit cap with a Los Angeles Rams emblem on it entered the Driftwood Dairy. He took $100 in cash and ran away.

Hid Inside Store

Two days later, a man apparently secreted himself inside a Safeway on Imperial Highway before the store closed. At 10:33 p.m., a clerk was confronted by a man pointing “a long-barreled handgun at her with both hands,” Burch said. It was a different pistol than the one used in the first robbery, he said.

The robber ordered the clerk to open the safe, and he fled with $2,600.

According to police, it was at this point that Razo returned to Harvard. There were no similar ski-mask robberies until he came home for summer break, investigators added.

On June 9, 1986, La Habra police arrested Razo on suspicion of grand theft from Brian A. Bruce, according to court records. The charge was dismissed on June 30 of this year.

At 11:45 p.m. on July 3, 1986, a Taco Bell at 241 S. Harbor Blvd. was robbed by a bandit wearing a navy blue ski mask and holding a .22-caliber pistol, perhaps a German Luger-type semiautomatic. He ordered the employees to lie down and fled with $1,600.

On July 23, 1986, a truck driver making a delivery at Smart and Final Wholesale Warehouse on Imperial Highway was confronted by a gunman in a navy blue ski mask near the loading docks at 5:15 a.m. It was the only local robbery in which the gunman fired his weapon. Police said the shooting appeared to be accidental.

(According to court documents, Razo told police he also fired a shot in a robbery in Miami. However, it was unclear whether the shot was fired accidentally. Officials have yet to verify the Miami robbery.)

Took $1,000 From Plant

The robber, wielding a Luger-type pistol, ordered a clerk and another worker to “lay down in the truck” after taking $1,000 from cash registers in the plant. As the robber closed the truck door to lock it, the gun discharged into the air, police said.

On Aug. 3, 1986, a Monday night, a ski-mask bandit with a blue-steel automatic pistol took $228 from cash registers at a La Habra Boulevard Thrifty drugstore.

The next incident was not until Dec. 30, 1986. At Wendy’s Restaurant on Imperial Highway, the restaurant manager told police of an attempted holdup by a man who ordered four workers to lie on the floor. But a female employee distracted the bandit long enough for two employees to flee.

Realizing this, the gunman fled. The restaurant manager said the getaway car may have been a bronze Mazda Rx7.

The next holdup was on Feb. 1 of this year. A masked man brandishing a semiautomatic pistol stormed into a McDonald’s restaurant at 2000 W. Imperial Highway at 12:25 a.m. as employees were counting the day’s receipts. Pointing his weapon at three workers, the gunman ordered them to hand over the bills--”no coins”--and lie face down on the floor. He fled with $700.

The last La Habra holdup occurred April 5, 1987.

At 8:55 a.m., a man wearing a green ski mask entered the kitchen door of a Whittier Boulevard Burger King, pointed a pistol at a female employee and told her to empty the safe and registers. He ran away with $937.

The escape charge against Razo stems from an incident Tuesday, when he gave police permission to search his bedroom at his family’s home on South Mariana Street. Officers found no gun or ski mask, but as Razo left the house he told three police investigators, “I’ll bet I can outrun all of you,” and ran down the street in handcuffs, Burch said.

He was caught without injury three blocks away.

Times staff writers Nancy Wride, Lonn Johnston, Doug Brown, Bob Schwartz and Lynn Smith contributed to this story.