{"id":1651,"date":"2014-03-17T17:56:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T00:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2014-03-17T18:42:13","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T01:42:13","slug":"californias-guilty-bank-robbery-kidnapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=1651","title":{"rendered":"Two Guilty of Bank Robbery by Staging a Kidnapping and Using a Fake Bomb"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013 Two California residents were found guilty today in U.S. District Court of plotting a bank heist and kidnapping and stealing more than $500,000 from the Bank of America, according to federal authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reyes \u201cRay\u201d Vega, 34, of Bell, and Aurora Barrera, 33, who now resides in Downey, each face up to 30 years in prison when they are sentenced in May.<\/p>\n

Barrera, the former assistant manager of a Bank of America branch in East Los Angeles, and Vega, her onetime boyfriend, were convicted of plotting a heist in which Barrera wore a fake bomb to simulate a kidnapping to steal approximately $565,000 from the bank, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

Following a one-week trial, the couple was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bank robbery and bank robbery in the September 5, 2012 heist.<\/p>\n

Officials said Barrera and her co-worker placed the $565,500 of the bank\u2019s money into bags and then threw the bags out the bank\u2019s side door.\u00a0<\/span>One of Vega\u2019s longtime friends, Richard Menchaca, picked up the money and drove it away from the bank.<\/p>\n

Menchaca met up with another accomplice, Bryan Perez, and they moved the money to a safe location.<\/p>\n

The device attached to Barrera\u2019s body turned out to be a hoax when the Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Department Bomb Squad arrived and disabled it using a robot.<\/p>\n

Menchaca and Perez were also charged in this case, but they pleaded guilty and testified at the trial of Vega and Barrera.<\/p>\n

According to court testimony, Vega and Barrera were dating at the time of the robbery.<\/p>\n

Barrera testified at trial that she planned to marry Vega and move to Dubai, where Vega claimed to have employment opportunities.\u00a0However, Barrera said she ended the relationship after learning that Vega was dating several other women at the time and that he had been charged with orchestrating the robbery.<\/p>\n

Several of Vega\u2019s former friends also testified at trial about how he asked for help in planning the robbery and how he bragged about it afterwards.<\/p>\n

Although a small portion of the money has been recovered, the majority remains outstanding.<\/p>\n

The FBI continues to pursue leads to recover the remainder of the stolen money.<\/p>\n

The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Huntington Park Police Department.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Two California residents were found guilty today in U.S. District Court of plotting a bank heist and kidnapping and stealing more than $500,000 from the Bank of America, according…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[271,269,272,273,270,189],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fbi","category-home-main-slider","tag-aurora-barrera","tag-bank-of-america","tag-bank-robber","tag-kidnapping","tag-reyes-vega","tag-u-s-district-court"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Guilty of Bank Robbery by Staging a Kidnapping and Using a Fake Bomb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Californians Guilty of Bank Robbery and Kidnapping of Bank of Ameria\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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