Not Good Jury Duty
20 year old Frank Otele and two men, his cousin Nonu Aluni, and Nonu's friend, security guard Joe Castillo, robbed a Wells Fargo Branch in San Bernardino. They were armed with assault rifles and purported bombs, driving stolen cars.
Joe Castillo's brother, Anthony, had a girlfriend, Kristen Swenson, who had worked at the bank as a teller, and allegedly gave the group information. Their mother, Toni, along with another friend of Joe's, Daniel Solomona, and Joe's brother, Anthony, acted as lookouts during the robbery. And yet another friend, Luis Cervantes, supplied the rifles and ammunition in return for a cut of the stolen money.
All are to go on trial. Frank Otele's attorney said Otele, who speaks Samoan and English, has an IQ of 65 and is not competent to stand trial. She said when he was asked to write a letter of apology to Wells Fargo, he had to have help to spell 'bank.' All perpetrators involved face sentences ranging from two (for the former teller who agreed to testify) to 30 (for Joe Castillo, the alleged 'mastermind' of the heist).
With all the twists and turns and charges involved in the case, we can only be glad we are not on that particular jury. Hope they supply score cards.
Copyright © 2005 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 15, No. 6, 7/05
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