'Tri-Cities Bandit,' Suspected Accomplice Indicted
Posted by Daniel Antolin on Sep 7, 2011 - 10:06:34 PM
Ernest Ivar Viana. Photos courtesy of FBI.
BRENTWOOD—On Tuesday, September 6, a federal grand jury indicted a man on 12 counts related to the summertime heists of the same number of banks located in eight southern California cities, including Brentwood, many from which a total of $21,229 was robbed.
Thirty-nine-year-old Ernest Ivar Viana, also known as "Ernesto Alvarez," robbed the 12 banks between June 28 and August 19 "by force and violence, and by intimidation," the federal indictment states. Viana was allegedly "aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced and procured the commission of the offense" against four of the 12 banks with the help of 42-year-old Oleg Gorokhovsky.
Viana was previously tied to 10 bank heists in a criminal complaint against the two men filed by Special FBI Agent
Christine Nicole Black on August 23 at the United States Central District Court before
federal magistrate judge John E. McDermott. They did
not enter a plea at the time.
What the indictment includes, but the criminal complaint did not mention, is that Viana is being tied to two other bank robberies in Glendale that took place between June 28 and June 29. Gorokhovsky was indicted for allegedly serving as Viana's accomplice during bank robberies that took place in Tarzana, Pasadena, La Verne and Westlake Village between August 11-19.
Malibu/Lost Hills police announced on August 20 that Viana, a resident
of Redway, Calif., was arrested by sheriff's deputies after
investigators connected him to the robbery of a First California Bank in
Westlake Village on August 19 at 11:40 a.m. At the time, authorities suspected this was the 10th bank robbery Viana committed. This turned out not to be the case.
During each of the robberies, Viana allegedly entered the banks,
handed tellers notes demanding money in $100 and $50 bills and kept
conversation limited, an earlier police press release states. He dressed
in buttoned-down shirts or jersey-style shirts and began to wear
sunglasses during the more recent bank robberies.
In an interview with Gorokhovsky after his arrest, Black deduced that
Viana would often wear long-sleeved shirts that belonged to Gorokhovsky
to hide his tattoos. Viana also never targeted banks that used glass
walls to separate tellers from clients. Viana would also take the
business card-sized, line paper notes he wrote in pencil in all capital
letters with him in order to keep police from using them to derive his
fingerprints. Then Viana would throw notes out of the getaway vehicle's
window.
According to the criminal complaint, Viana told Gorokhovsky on the
morning of August 19 to take the I-101 Freeway, get off at Westlake Boulevard past a
golf course, where they targeted the first bank they saw. Viana entered
the west doors of First California Bank in Westlake Village, but ignored
the assistant branch manager, who asked if he needed assistance, and
walked straight to a teller window. The branch manager, suspicious of
how quiet Viana was at the window, asked another teller to approach him
and ask if he needed assistance.
Thereafter, Viana left the bank with the money in both hands through
the same west doors from which he entered and turned south toward Agoura
Road. The assistant branch manager immediately shut the doors and put
out a crime broadcast to police. After crossing the street, Viana got
into a white Volkswagen Jetta with Gorokhovsky in the driver's seat, and
they both sped away. He stole $5,850 during the robbery, which took
about 30 seconds.
While driving on the I-101 Freeway, police started chasing the getaway
vehicle. Viana instructed Gorokhovsky to keep driving while the former
jumped in the back seat and gave the money to the latter, who instead
decided to stop and give up. During their arrest, police found $700 in
Gorokhovsky's front left pants pocket. The suspected getaway driver has
since said he accepts responsibility for his actions and feels very bad
for having committed them.
Viana was arrested on August 19 at 1:30 p.m. and booked at 2:05 p.m. at
the aforementioned police station on bank robbery suspicion, booking
details indicate.
Gorokhovsky was previously arrested on June 18 at 4:20 p.m. by the LAPD
West Valley Division and later booked at 5:55 p.m. at the Van Nuys Jail
on an unspecified misdemeanor, booking details indicate. He was
released on July 19 on $6,660 bail, one month before he was arrested
along with Viana.
He later told FBI he did not know Viana was going to rob the bank, but
he also said that this was a topic of at least two prior conversations
between the two. One conversation was casual weeks after Viana had sold
drugs to Gorokhovsky. Robbing banks was a quick and easy process, Viana
told Gorokhovsky during this chat. And the other conversation, which
took place during the morning of the West Lake Village bank job,
involved Viana telling Gorokhovsky that they were going to drive to a
bank to rob it.
In addition to providing the aforementioned details of the robbery,
Gorokhovsky said he was able to remember driving Viana to four or five
other bank heists in Tarzana, Pasadena, La Verne and Chino Hills. He was not indicted as an alleged accomplice for the Chino Hills bank robbery.
But
Gorokhovsky said that his use of drugs, which includes methamphetamines,
makes it difficult for him to remember all the details.
Other banks Viana is suspected of robbing are located in the cities of
Burbank, Los Angeles and Brentwood. After the first three
robberies in Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena that were known at the time occurred, authorities dubbed the then-unidentified man
responsible the "Tri-Cities Bandit."
The Brentwood robbery occurred at the Grandpoint bank located at 11661
San Vicente Blvd. on August 12 during which it is now known that $440 was taken. Crime report data indicates that the
bank robbery occurred on that date at 4:45 p.m.
Black believes that the
man who she has seen in surveillance video photo stills from the bank
and others positively matches Viana's description. And the assistant
branch manager and two tellers from the First California Bank in
Westlake Village have also identified Viana in live and photo line-ups.
Police earlier released details indicating that Viana was seen by
witnesses leaving U.S. Bank located at 1900 E. Foothill Blvd. in La
Verne on August 17 and getting into a white, later model four-door
Volkswagen Passat-style vehicle driven by another man. Though witnesses
could not physically describe this second man.
A federal
indictment being made is the second step after a criminal complaint is
filed as part of the process to form the basis for a criminal case in U.S. federal
court. It also means a federal grand jury has determined that the case is
strong enough to move forward.
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