Guilty Pleas In Deadly Stockton Bank Hostage Case
STOCKTON (CBS SF) -- Two defendants in the deadly 2014 Stockton Bank of the West robbery that end in rolling gun battle with police and the death of a hostage pleaded guilty Friday after a plea deal removed a possible death sentence.
Jaime Ramos, 21, was facing a possible death sentence because he used hostage Misty Holt Singh as a human shield during a shootout with police. Singh was killed in the shootout.
Ramos will now received a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Pablo Ruvalcaba, who drove Ramos and two other robbers to the bank, will receive 25 years to life for his role. The other two suspects — 27-year-old Alex Martinez and Gilbert Renteria, 30 — were killed during the final shootout.
Ruvalcaba's attorney, Jeffrey Hirschfield, told the Stockton Record that the plea agreement had been reached following the Nov. 8 election in which voters overwhelming voted in favor of keeping the death penalty in the state.
But Hirschfield did not say if the vote influenced his client's willingness to take a plea deal instead of facing a lengthy trial.
He would not speculate about whether California residents' vote against abolishing the death penalty had anything to do with the timing of the resolution of the case.
"He's very remorseful about all the deaths, including Misty Holt Singh," Hirschfield told reporters outside the courtroom.
The setting of a sentencing both men was set for Jan. 9.
