A bank robber who violently assaulted several tellers during four heists that netted him and his accomplices nearly $400,000, likely making him one of the most prolific bank robbers in San Diego County history, was sentenced Monday to more than 488 years in prison.
A San Diego Superior Court jury convicted 45-year-old Larry Lightning Jr. in April on 30 felony counts, including charges of robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. The charges stemmed from four takeover robberies that he carried out between 2019 and 2022 at branches in Escondido, Scripps Ranch, Kearny Mesa and Carlsbad.
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On Monday, Judge Polly Shamoon sentenced Lightning to 488 years and eight months in prison.
Surveillance images show two armed men entering a California Bank & Trust branch in Kearny Mesa in December 2021. Prosecutors said one of the suspects died in 2023 in a shooting. The other, a jury found, was Larry Lightning, Jr. (FBI San Diego)“This defendant orchestrated a terrifying crime spree that put the lives of bank workers and community members in danger,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement. “Thanks to the dedicated work of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, he has been held accountable for his crimes and the fear and harm he caused. While the defendant proved elusive for years, law enforcement never gave up its work to solve this string of crimes.”
Lightning did not address the judge during Monday’s hearing. His court-appointed public defender declined to comment, except to say that Lightning “intends to appeal the outcome and sentencing.”
Deputy District Attorneys Kristie Nikoletich and Savanah Howe tried the case, telling the jury in April that Lightning was the leader of a “highly sophisticated” crew that scouted bank branches beforehand and chose locations with little security that were close to freeways. Nikoletich said evidence at trial suggested that on at least two occasions, they purposely struck shortly after armored trucks made cash drop-offs. And in the hours or days before the robberies, they stole vehicles to use as getaway cars that they were able to quickly abandon a few miles away from the crime scene.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Lightning and two accomplices stole $91,297 in 2019 from a credit union branch in Escondido. Later that year, Lightning made off with $58,383 from a credit union branch in Scripps Ranch. In 2021 and 2022, Lightning and an accomplice stole $174,568 from a Kearny Mesa bank branch and $65,106 from a Carlsbad bank branch.
“It’s a staggering amount,” Nikoletich said shortly after the trial, noting that a San Diego police detective testified at trial that most bank robbers try to keep a low profile while demanding money from a teller. That tactic can net robbers as little as a few hundred dollars, according to court records in other local cases, while FBI data show the average bank robber makes off with about $4,200.
A masked gunman exits a stolen SUV and runs toward an Escondido credit union branch during a May 2019 takeover robbery. A jury found Larry Lightning Jr. was involved in the heist with two unknown accomplices. (FBI San Diego)But Lightning and his accomplices scored big by acting brazenly and deploying violence. During the heist he pulled off alone in November 2019 at a California Coast Credit Union branch on Mira Mesa Boulevard, Lightning yanked a teller to the ground by her hair and then dragged her across the floor. He pointed his pistol at a second teller while demanding she open a vault and then struck her in the head with his gun.
The jury found that Lightning similarly assaulted tellers by dragging them by the hair and pistol-whipping them during robberies in 2021 and 2022.
Nikoletich said prosecutors did not make any allegations during trial as to the identities of Lightning’s two accomplices in the first robbery, which they carried out in May 2019 at a San Diego County Credit Union branch in Escondido.
Prosecutors alleged in court filings and during trial that Lightning’s accomplice during the last two robberies was Gregory Moore, who was fatally shot on March 18, 2023, in Lemon Grove. Moore was never charged, and prosecutors don’t believe the deadly shooting was related to the robberies.
About a month after Moore was slain, investigators obtained a warrant for Lightning’s arrest, and a Riverside County sheriff’s SWAT team arrested him at a Moreno Valley home.
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