Costa Mesa : Harvard Student Faces Added Robbery Charge

Harvard scholarship student Jose Luis Razo Jr., already charged with 13 armed robberies in Orange and Los Angeles counties, was charged Wednesday with another robbery that occurred last June in Costa Mesa.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter W. Huelsenbeck accused Razo, 20, of La Habra, of the June 29 robbery of a McDonald’s Restaurant on Harbor Boulevard. Razo has pleaded innocent to all the previous charges but said in an interview with The Times last month that he took almost $30,000 in the string of holdups, which he said he committed during vacation from college. He also said he committed one robbery in Miami during spring break of 1986, but police in Florida have been unable to corroborate his story.

In a hearing Wednesday before Judge Robert B. Hutson in North Municipal Court, Razo’s bail was lowered from $150,000 to $100,000. Razo’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender James S. Egar, had asked that bail be lowered to $50,000 in light of Razo’s clean record and strong community ties.

But Huelsenbeck objected, saying that Razo had displayed “a really mean streak” in committing the robberies and was “dangerous to the community.”

Razo remains in Orange County Jail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 18.