VENTURA : 3 Bank Robbers Get Lengthy Sentences

Three men who pleaded guilty to robbing the Wells Fargo Bank on South Chestnut Street in Ventura last July each were sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison, FBI Agent Charlie Parsons said.

Los Angeles residents Robert Johnson, 34, George Earl Young, 21, and William Rogers, 30, all admitted the July 1 bank robbery, which spawned a high-speed chase that ended in a quiet Oxnard neighborhood.

According to police reports, the men entered the bank, one of them armed with a 9-millimeter handgun, announced a robbery and ordered several customers to the floor. Two of the men then jumped the counter and filled a bag with several thousand dollars, reports said. The robbers sped southbound in a van on the Ventura Freeway but were spotted by a Ventura police officer at Victoria Avenue. Oxnard police joined the chase and the suspects were arrested near Geranium Place and Edelweiss Street after the van crashed into a tree. Johnson was sentenced to 11 years, 5 months in federal prison; Young received 10 years, 11 months, and Rogers was sentenced to 12 years, Parsons said.