Update: Myloh Mason, a suspect from Lakewood's 2015 Scream bank robbery who was captured after becoming the twelfth Coloradan to be placed on the FBI's ten most-wanted list, has been sentenced to an astonishing 1,200 years in prison for reasons that First Judicial District DA's office spokeswoman Pam Russell concedes are complicated.
The length of the sentence makes the 371-year jolt handed to Mason conspirator Miguel Sanders seem positively modest in comparison.
On November 18, 2015, as we've reported, prosecutors say that Sanders, Mason and a third man, Tyrone Richardson, stormed into a bank near the intersection of West Kipling and Jewell in Lakewood. They wore masks, gloves and multiple layers of clothing and packed four guns. Their armaments included extra-high-capacity magazines and 125 rounds of ammo.
Inside the bank were eleven employees and three customers, two of whom escaped as the robbery got under way. The rest were held at gunpoint while the men ordered the bank's vault and the teller's drawers to be opened. Within minutes, they'd left the victims in the vault and split with more than $50,000 in cash.
The authorities weren't far behind them, thanks to 911 calls from the customers who got away. Meanwhile, the men allegedly swapped a stolen car that had transported them to the bank in favor of a rental car put in place for their getaway.
Before long, though, they crashed the rental vehicle, forcing them to proceed on foot into a nearby neighborhood. On West Eldorado Place, they kicked in the door of a 65-year-old man, ordered him to hand over the keys to his mini-van and his phone, and informed him that he would be accompanying them as a hostage.
Things didn't work out that way. Inside his garage, the man freed himself and ran down his driveway, where he was shot in the leg. He fell to the ground, then got back up and continued to flee as the men fired at him, striking him three more times. The wounds were described as life-threatening, but somehow he managed to get to the porch of his neighbor's house before collapsing. He survived.
At that point, the trio took off in the mini-van but crashed it, too, not far from Sheridan High School and the Sheridan Recreation Center, the DA's office maintains. At the center, they tried to carjack the vehicle of a thirty-year-old woman, assaulting and shooting her in the process and punching her 53-year-old mother so hard that she suffered broken facial bones. Yet once they took control of the vehicle, they couldn't start it — and so they were left to make a literal run for it again.
Sanders soon separated from Mason and Richardson, sprinting toward the high school's bus depot, where he confronted a bus driver. Holding one gun to the woman's head and a second in his other hand, he told her to climb behind the wheel of her bus and motor away. But she refused to cooperate, and before Sanders could take additional action, the cops arrived. They found him hiding under the bus.
Richardson was taken into custody six days later, the DA's office notes, while Mason wasn't found until January 15, 2016, as described below in our earlier report about Coloradans who were once among the FBI's ten most-wanted fugitives.
In the end, Mason was convicted of 38 counts, as well as "being a habitual criminal," Russell points out via e-mail. "That means for each count for which he was convicted, he was sentenced to three times the maximum presumptive range. Most of the counts were crimes of violence and so were sentenced consecutively."
Continue for our earlier report and much more about the FBI's top-ten list from Colorado's perspective.
Update, 6:07 a.m. January 19, 2016: Last month, we reported that Myloh Mason, the last suspect at large from the so-called Scream bank robbery in Lakewood — following the busts of alleged associates Miguel Sanders and Tyrone Richardson — had been added to the FBI's ten most-wanted list.
He was the twelfth Coloradan to make the roster since it was launched on March 14, 1950.
And now, like his eleven predecessors, he's been caught by authorities.
According to the FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, Mason was taken into custody at around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 15, at a Motel 6 near I-25 and 84th Avenue in Thornon.
A SWAT team reportedly surrounded and then evacuated the facility before calling for Mason to give himself up. He's said to have done so peacefully, walking out with his hands aloft.
As for the FBI's most-wanted list, we marked its sixtieth anniversary in 2010 by highlighting the ten Coloradans who had made the roster up until that point. The total number of fugitives to be so designated at the time of Mason's addition was 505 and included another Coloradan, Edwin Ernesto Rivera. He was listed in 2013 regarding the 2011 murder of Richard Limon. He surrendered to authorities shortly after being spotlighted.
Check out Mason's eleven Colorado predecessors below. Photos and info about them is followed by the FBI wanted poster for Mason, who's expected to appear in court today, as well as a 7News piece about his capture.
Raymond Edward Young: Dates on the list: 11/12/51-11/16/51
The FBI doesn't offer details about Young's crimes. The account reads: "Due to FBI investigation, Young was arrested in Denver, Colorado. Young worked nights at a bakery and was apprehended while loading bread trucks." With, presumably, actual bread, not the kind you can spend.
Jack Harvey Raymond: Dates listed: 8/8/55-10/14/55
Again, the feds don't offer much here. Their account reads, "Due to an FBI investigation, Raymond was apprehended in Denver, Colorado." But we managed to track down a more vivid account of his activities from the August 4, 1955 edition of the Miami News. The article begins:
"Slippery, fast-moving Jack Harvey Raymond, one of the top bad-check artists of modern times, was spotlighted by the FBI today as one of the nation's 'Ten Most Wanted' criminals. Raymond and his high-flying girl friend, Helen Virginia Gibbs, a little charmer with expensive tastes, have fleeced gullible persons in at least 29 states, from New York to California, from Florida to the Canadian border."
Daniel Abram Everhart: Dates listed: 8/17/55-10/9/55
Again, there's precious little online about Everhart. The FBI shares only this: "Due to an FBI investigation, Everhart was arrested in Denver, Colorado."
Ernest Tait: Dates listed: 07/11/51-07/12/51, 8/16/60-9/10/60
As noted above, Tait was a two-time loser when it came to the Most Wanted List. Here's what the FBI has to say about him in connection to his first arrest: "Tait was arrested in Miami, Florida, by the FBI as a direct result of an Associated Press (AP) story published in the Miami Herald and the Miami Daily News. After being apprehended, Tait said he had intended to shoot it out with the police, but he had read the AP story about himself stating he had been added to the 'Top Ten' list and decided not to try to shoot it out with the FBI."
The mention regarding the second arrest is briefer: "Due to an FBI investigation, Ernest Tait was arrested in Denver, Colorado."
Fortunately, there's more pizzazz in this Trivia Library blurb:
"ERNEST TAIT. Crime: Burglary. Conclusion: Tait was one of the few "elite" who made the Ten Most Wanted list twice. The 1st time was in 1951 after he was identified as one of 2 men involved in burglarizing an Elks lodge in New Castle, Ind. Tait was captured within 24 hours of his addition to the FBI list. He pleaded guilty to charges of 2nd-degree burglary and was sentenced to serve 2 to 5 years in prison. In 1960, Tait's name appeared a 2nd time on the FBI list — again for burglary. He was subsequently apprehended."
Chester Anderson McGonigal: Dates listed: 8/14/61-8/17/61
Other than being on the Most Wanted List for three days, McGonigal didn't make much of a mark on crime history. The FBIs one-liner about him: "McGonigal was arrested in Denver, Colorado, by the FBI after a citizen recognized his photograph in a newspaper."
James Robert Bishop: Dates listed:1/10/66-1/21/66
Here's all the feds have to say about Mr. Bishop's eleven days on the list: "Bishop was arrested in Aspen, Colorado by the FBI after a citizen recognized him from an Identification Order. He had been working as a kitchen helper."
Everett Leroy Biggs: Dates listed: 11/21/66-12/1/66
The FBI skimps on data regarding Mr. Biggs. The Bureau's account reads: "Due to an FBI investigation, Biggs was arrested in Broomfield, Colorado."
But Trivia Library at least lets us know what he did to get listed in this squib: "EVERETT LEROY BIGGS. Crime: Bank robbery and armed robbery. Conclusion: Biggs was taken by surprise outside his Colorado hideout."
James Ray Renton: Dates listed: 4/7/76-5/9/77
The feds' description is concise: "Due to an FBI investigation, Renton was arrested in Aurora, Colorado." But it turns out that Renton inspired a book entitled Like a Thief's Dream. Here's a description of it:
"James Ray Renton — thief, counterfeiter, and bank robber — became one of America's Ten Most Wanted Men when he was charged with murdering a young Arkansas policeman in 1976. After a daring escape from the Tucker Maximum Security Unit in the 1980s, Renton made the FBI's Fifteen Most Wanted List. He later wrote a 60-page account of his escape and adventures, sent in a series of letters to photojournalist Danny Lyon, a close friend of Renton's since they met in the Texas prison system in 1967. After Renton's death in 1996, Lyon visited the Arkansas town where Renton had been convicted, and through an incredible paper trail located Dinker Cassell, who was sentenced to life along with Renton for the murder — but who may be entirely innocent. Like a Thief's Dream, Lyon's first work of nonfiction prose, is the gripping story of two men — one alive, the other dead—and an unparalleled portrayal of prison life in the 1980s and 90s."
John William Sherman: Dates listed: 8/3/79-12/17/81
Sherman was on the run for two years. Then, say the feds, he "was arrested in Golden, Colorado while he was getting into his car outside his residence."
Want more? According to the December 15, 1981 edition of the Daily News, Sherman broke out of a Lompoc, California prison in 1979. He was a member of the George Jackson Brigade, named for a radical prisoner killed in San Quentin by prison guards in 1971. He "allegedly participated in at least 14 of the group's bank robberies and 11 bombings."
Daniel Jay Barney: Dates listed: 3/10/81-4/19/81
For the last Colorado capture on the list, a fitting bit of finality for a man wanted for rape and robbery: "Barney took four hostages in a condominium in Denver, Colorado. After two escaped and the police negotiated the release of the other two hostages, Barney killed himself."
Edwin Ernesto Rivera Gracias
March 14, 2013
Edwin Ernesto Rivera Gracias is wanted for the murder of a longtime family acquaintance of his girlfriend. The 69-year-old victim was found brutally beaten, stabbed, and dumped in the mountains of Jefferson County, Colorado. The crime took place on August 17, 2011. Rivera Gracias is believed to be in El Salvador, and may have a Salvadoran identification that says Edwin Rivera. He may also attempt to travel to the United States using fraudulent documents. He is a member of the La Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13). Rivera Gracias has ties to other gang members who are located in Colorado; Los Angeles, California; and El Salvador. Rivera Gracias may also visit Mexico and Guatemala.
03/27/13 Update: Edwin Ernesto Rivera Gracias was taken into custody in El Salvador and transferred to authorities in Denver, Colorado.