Joe and Logan Griffith: Father and Son Guilty in Stealthy Pot Shop Robbery

Earlier this year, Durango-area prosecutor Reid Stewart noted what he called a "strange dynamic" between Joe Griffith, 44, and his now-twenty-year-old son, Logan.

That's one way of putting it.

Both Griffiths have now been sentenced for their roles in the January robbery of a marijuana shop in Durango.

But while the younger Griffith is the one who actually packed the gat used in the crime, his dad, originally seen as a victim rather than a perpetrator, actually got the longer jolt in jail.

Here's why.


According to the Durango Herald, which has followed this story since the beginning, Joe was a regular customer at Rocky Mountain High, a Durango-area dispensary.

As such, employees presumably weren't surprised to find him in the shop at around 6:30 p.m. on January 31.

That's when Logan, then nineteen, burst into the business wearing a dark hoodie and a ski mask and wielding a semi-automatic.

Logan ordered an employee to open a safe and a cash register, the Herald reports, and after being handed approximately $2,700 in cash and what police described as a “copious” amount of packaged pot, he bound two staffers and the customer — his dad — with zip ties and duct tape before rabbiting.


It didn't take long for the cops to catch up to Logan.

He was taken into custody less than an hour later, albeit after what the Herald describe as a "brief tussle" that ended when the cops used a stun gun on him.

Meanwhile, Joe was interviewed by investigators on the scene, with him acting as if he'd simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But before long, the police figured out his relationship to the gunman and arrested him a couple of days later.

Over the next few months, Logan reached a plea deal, admitting to second-degree assault on a peace officer and aggravated robbery — crimes for which he received a six-year-stay in the Colorado Youthful Offender System, with the possibility of fifteen years in a Colorado Department of Corrections facility if he fails to complete his sentence.

But during the hearing at which this punishment was formalized, prosecutor Stewart was quoted by the Herald as saying that "even though it was the son holding the gun, I feel that the father is more culpable for the crime.” This theme was also struck by Logan's sister, who called Joe a "horrible" father and noted that he frequently berated his son as a "mama's boy."

These assertions no doubt contributed to Joe's sentence, handed down yesterday: fifteen years under the auspices of the CDOC.

Look below to see full-sized booking photos of Logan and Joe Griffith.