Robbery

Costa Mesa police continued to search Friday for a suspected bank robber. A man believed to be in his 20s passed a teller a note demanding cash at the Citibank at 234 E. 17th St. about 11:06 a.m. Friday, said Costa Mesa police Lt. Mark Manley. The man was wearing a red baseball hat, sunglasses, shorts and a white T-shirt. He is about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, and weighs 150 pounds, Manley said. Police said the man left on foot with about $6,000. No one was injured in the incident.

The accused "Snowboarder Bandit" was charged Tuesday with 12 felonies related to a string of Orange County bank robbers, authorities said. Michael Brandon Franks, 29, of Riverside County is allegedly responsible for robbing 10 area banks, including branches in Newport Beach and Irvine, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. He has been charged with 10 felony counts of second degree robbery and two felony counts of attempted robbery. Prosecutors said in each case Franks wore clothing similar to what a snowboarder would wear, including a beanie, and slipped the bank teller a note saying he had a gun and demanded money.

Costa Mesa spent nearly $700,000 in legal fees through the end of January to defend itself from a lawsuit filed by its employees, invoices show. Total fees have reached $692,379, according to invoices obtained this week by a Daily Pilot public records request. That figure is $186,000 higher than the $505,399 reported on the city's website earlier this week. Such a disparity online was a mistake, however, as the total did not account for the months of July, August or January, according to city Assistant Finance Director Colleen O'Donoghue.

Robbery Suspect: The March 28 article “Police looking for machete-wielding robbery suspect” mistakenly reported that one of the robberies occurred Monday. They occurred Tuesday morning.

Police are continuing the search for an armed man who robbed a Baskin-Robbins in Costa Mesa on Tuesday evening. About 9:44 p.m., an employee of the ice cream store at 1927 Harbor Blvd. came out from the back to serve what he thought was a customer, but instead the man showed a gun in his waistband, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department. The man told the employee he wasn't afraid to use the gun and demanded cash, police said. He took the money from the register and fled the scene.

Four members of a Vietnamese street gang will be tried in court Thursday in connection with the 1995 cold case slaying of a fellow gang member in Costa Mesa, authorities said. Anthony Paul Johnson Jr., 35, of Westminster, Giang Thuy Nguyen, 36, of Fountain Valley, Tam Hung Nguyen, 36, of Riverside, and Truc Ngoc Tran, 34, of Santa Ana, each face one felony count of murder and one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder for the shooting death of fellow gang member Viet Nguyen, who left during a home invasion robbery of a classmate's home in Huntington Beach for fear that he would be identified, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Two men were arrested on suspicion of robbing a man they met on Craigslist at an Irvine park, police said. Xavier Austin Parnell, 24, of Canoga Park, and Matthew Erick Davis, 22, formerly of Irvine, allegedly met a Huntington Beach man trying to sell a laptop Sunday night, the Irvine Police Department said. During the transaction, Parnell allegedly reached inside his coat, seemingly for his wallet, but displayed a handgun and demanded the merchandise instead, running to a car police believe was being driven by Davis.

COSTA MESA - Police continued the search Monday for two men they say robbed a cell phone store at gunpoint. The men covered their faces with hooded sweatshirts when they robbed a Verizon Wireless store at 2300 Harbor Blvd. 9 a.m. Saturday, police said in a news release. The two took an unknown amount of cash and phones. Police said the suspects are black, in their early 20s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighing between 150 and 170 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact Sgt. Ed Everett at (714)

A Stanton man convicted of his third strike for the armed robbery of an Irvine in-home daycare was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in state prison. Hung Trong Do, 34, pleaded guilty in May to robbing a woman at gunpoint while she was caring for six children, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Do pleaded guilty to felony first-degree robbery, first-degree residential burglary, possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.

A Laguna Niguel man, dubbed the "Blue Note Bandit" for a string of robberies in Costa Mesa and other Orange County cities, was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison and will have to pay $26,000 in restitution, according to prosecutors. David Andrew Camp, 52, robbed 13 banks in about two and a half months, and was known for handing tellers a note demanding large bills and no dye packs, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. According to the D.A.'s office, he robbed banks in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest and San Juan Capistrano.