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The three men arrested in connection with the robbery of the Heritage Bank have been in and out of prison throughout their lives.
By BRADY DENNIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2001
LAND O'LAKES -- The three Tampa men charged with holding up a Land O'Lakes bank Tuesday are no strangers to robbery.
Or stealing cars. Or assault. Or drug charges. Or violating probation. Or failing to appear in court. Or grand larceny.
Most of all, they aren't strangers to getting caught.
All three men have extensive criminal records. Each has spent at least four stints in prison.
Pasco County sheriff's deputies said Charles Eugene Powell, 39, of 8306 Hillsborough Lane was the lead man in Tuesday's robbery at Heritage Bank, 23000 State Road 54.
He also leads the other two men in number of arrests: Tuesday's incident was his 30th arrest since June 1980, according to his 18-page history from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
To make the list longer, Powell was also charged Wednesday with robbing a Bank of America last week in Land O'Lakes.
He has been charged at least 25 other times with one form of stealing or another.
Powell also has been charged with resisting arrest, aggravated assault and failing to appear in court.
Among other things, he has been convicted of vehicle theft, grand larceny, violating probation, cocaine possession, escaping prison and obstructing justice, records show.
Powell has served four prison terms, the first in 1982, said Katie Hogan, Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman. He escaped in 1983 for a short time. He was released in 1988, only to return in 1991.
He was released again in 1993, only to return in 1997 on various burglary, theft and cocaine charges. Powell was released in November 2000 on three years' probation.
The other suspects in Tuesday's robbery haven't fared much better.
James Walter Gonzalez, 39, of 1002 E Norfolk St. isn't far behind with 24 arrests of his own since 1978, according to FDLE records. Among them are convictions for vehicle theft, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, violating probation and marijuana possession.
The first of his five prison stays was from 1979 to 1983. Gonzalez returned in 1986 and was released in April 1987. He was back that September and served until May 1989.
He returned in 1990 on aggravated assault charges. He returned again in 1996 after violating probation and was released in 1998.
The third suspect, John Grant Straten, 44, of 9404 15th St. N has been arrested 11 times since 1974, FDLE records show.
Along the way he has racked up convictions for armed robbery, burglary, three vehicle thefts, grand larceny, violation of parole and marijuana possession.
Straten also had five prison stays, Hogan said. She said the first came in 1974 after a robbery. He returned twice in 1980 and again in 1986. He was released in May 2000, Hogan said.
Deputies Jason Sarne and Steve Cryoskie were at a Willow Bend Chevron station Tuesday when a couple told them the bank was being robbed.
The deputies saw Powell flee the bank and jump into a black 1984 Ford Escort. The deputies chased down the car less than 200 yards from the bank.
Powell was charged with robbery and obstruction, while Straten and Gonzalez were charged with being a principal to robbery, said Sheriff's Office spokesman Jon Powers.
There were nine employees and a customer in the bank, but no one was injured. The robbers stole an undisclosed amount of money, but it was recovered.
All three men remained at the Land O'Lakes jail Wednesday night without bond.
Tuesday's robbery was the seventh handled by the Sheriff's Office this year, Powers said. He wouldn't rule out any of the men as suspects in the other robberies.
"Our detectives started working on that aspect of the case last night," Powers said. "That's certainly something we'll be looking very closely at."
- Brady Dennis covers the city of Zephyrhills and police in east Pasco. He can be reached at (352) 521-5757, ext. 23, or by e-mail at dennis@sptimes.com.