H.B. man gets 4-year term in gas station robbery, burglary of art gallery
A Huntington Beach man was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to robbing a gas station and burglarizing an art gallery, prosecutors said.
John Williams Rodenborn, 38, was convicted of felony second-degree robbery, felony criminal threats, felony second-degree commercial burglary and misdemeanor aggravated trespassing, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
He received a more severe sentence because of two prior felony burglary convictions in 1996 and 1999, prosecutors said.
In April 2015, Rodenborn went into a Chevron station on Beach Boulevard in Westminster early one morning and threatened to harm a store clerk if he did not give him money, prosecutors said. Rodenborn left the station with money the clerk provided.
Prosecutors said Rodenborn left behind a used cigarette and the DNA found on it, in conjunction with video surveillance, was used to connect him with the crime.
The following August, Rodenborn walked into Dax Gallery, a Costa Mesa art gallery, while it was closed and stole an employee’s iPhone, prosecutors said.
Costa Mesa police tracked the phone and found Rodenborn, who fled the scene by jumping over a wall into a neighborhood and entered the garage of a home, prosecutors said.
Rodenborn was eventually found behind a nearby trash container and arrested.
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