| Bank Robber loses appeal |
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| ::darkshadows:: (blood@thirsty.net) |
2008/05/15 20:31 |
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Subject: Bank Robber loses appeal
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Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 02:31:18 GMT
Xref: news.nzbot.com alt.fan.rolex:6464
Bank robber who pined for prison loses appeal
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, May 15, 2008
(05-15) 15:58 PDT SAN FRANCISCO --
A week after being paroled for bank robbery, Horace Bordelon returned
to the same downtown Oakland bank and held it up again in 2004. His
defense at trial? He robbed the bank only so he could return to the
routine of prison life, so he didn't actually intend to steal any
money.
The jury didn't buy it, and Bordelon was sentenced to 11 years in
prison on a second-degree robbery conviction. A state appeals court
rejected his appeal today, saying his unique "institutionalization
defense" was weak.
It also called Bordelon's first bank robbery "inartful" and said his
second heist was done "ineptly."
"While defendant may have been hoping to get caught, he also might
have been content to keep the money - a win/win situation from his
point of view," Justice James Marchiano of the First District Court of
Appeal wrote.
Marchiano said there was no evidence that Bordelon had planned to give
the money back.
Bordelon held up the Wells Fargo Bank at 12th Street and Broadway on
July 1, 2004. Police Officer Jimmy Wong spotted Bordelon walking in
front of his car with a plastic bag full of money and arrested him
without incident. Police found $643 in the bag.
Bordelon had robbed the same bank in August 1997. After that holdup,
he caught a cab but was soon arrested. Bordelon was convicted, then
paroled a week before the 2004 robbery.
At trial, a clinical psychologist testified that Bordelon showed
behavior consistent with institutionalization, a dependence on life in
an institutional setting that makes living outside it similar to
adjusting to a new culture.
Bordelon's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Tony Cheng, told jurors
that the defendant "wanted to get caught holding the money so that he
can go back to jail. He was not interested in keeping the money; he
was not interested in getting away. He was interested in getting
caught and getting arrested holding the money."
The attorney said Bordelon committed no crime and that his actions
were "only a cry for help."
In his appeal, Bordelon challenged the decision by Judge Allan Hymer
of Alameda County Superior Court not to alter a standard jury
instruction that says motive may tend to show guilt.
"Defendant is mistaken in claiming that there was no evidence of a
guilty motive here," Marchiano wrote. "This is, after all, a bank
robbery case, and while it ordinarily goes without saying, criminals
rob to get money. Defendant may have had any number of reasons, apart
from any desire to be imprisoned, for doing what he did."
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