SANTA ANA, Calif.—A 28-year-old Corona man was sentenced Jan. 29 to a dozen years in federal prison for a two-day spree of armed robberies in Orange County.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney also ordered George Arizon to pay $3,658 in restitution to his victims. Mr. Arizon pleaded guilty in August to single counts each of interference with commerce by robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
On Nov. 8, 2022, a gun-wielding Mr. Arizon held up a 7-Eleven store in Westminster, forcing a clerk to turn over $80 and two packs of cigarettes, capping off his 10th stickup in two days, federal prosecutors said.
Mr. Arizon robbed eight restaurants and a hair-cutting business in Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Westminster, prosecutors said.
Mr. Carney went with a probation official’s recommendation of 12 years after Mr. Arizon asked the judge to take a chance on him.
“I won’t make excuses for the crimes I committed,” he said. “I’m ashamed of it. It’s embarrassing to look back and know I did this, so there’s no excuses... But I need you to take a chance on me. I’m a good person.”
Mr. Arizon noted he committed the crimes following a lengthy prison term.
“I did a lot of time,” he said. “This is a lot of time.”
Federal prosecutors had requested a lengthier prison term based on the guidelines as outlined in the defendant’s plea deal, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Jena MacCabe acknowledged Mr. Arizon’s troubled upbringing as a significant factor in the judge’s job of dispensing justice in the case.
“I think there is significant mitigation in this case,” Ms. MacCabe said.
But the prosecutor added that authorities found it “troubling” that Mr. Arizon went on his crime spree so soon after getting out of custody.
“This is a difficult case,” Mr. Carney said, adding he was “troubled with the harm on the victims.”
Mr. Carney said he felt that the victims threatened with a gun were subjected to trauma they may never overcome.
Normally, Mr. Carney added, he wouldn’t consider a lesser prison term than the guidelines, but he said he “appreciated what he admitted to in his plea agreement... and I think that a 12-year sentence is just punishment and does recognize the emotional harm he inflicted on these people.”
Mr. Carney also said he felt that Mr. Arizon’s robberies were in part fueled by his drug addictions.
Mr. Arizon’s attorney, Jason Hannan of the federal Public Defender’s Office, noted that Mr. Arizon had completed a year of probation before the robberies, but then, “He lost his job and apartment... and he started to use methamphetamine... and it really spiraled down quickly.”
Mr. Arizon’s father wrote a letter on behalf of his son that Mr. Carney also cited in his decision.
“I can honestly say that I did not give my son a fair chance at life,” the defendant’s father, George G. Arizon, wrote in the letter. “He came into this world when I wasn’t ready financially or mentally. He started his life in an environment filled with gangs and drug addicts. Myself and others living in that home were among those gang members and drug addicts, and as he stepped out into his life outside our home it didn’t get any easier.”
Mr. Arizon had been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but when his family gave him his medication “it made him like a zombie,” his father said. “So we decided to put up with the extra energy instead. I’m not sure if it was the right thing to do but here we are.”
Mr. Arizon seemed to respond to going to work with his father and helping him, his father said.
Mr. Arizon grew up poor and in a tough gang neighborhood, Mr. Carney noted.
“There was some verbal and physical abuse in the home,” the judge added. “His father struggled with alcohol and spent some time in prison.”
Two close friends of Mr. Arizon were stabbed to death when the defendant was a teen, Mr. Carney said. And Mr. Arizon began using alcohol and marijuana when he was 13 to 14, Mr. Carney said.
