An armored car guard testified Monday that he was delivering $97,000 in cash to a Sebastopol bank when a man he thought at first was a police officer came running at him and pointed a gun at his face.
Brinks Inc. guard Gregory Klemme said he thought he was being warned about trouble inside the Bank of America branch when the man shouted at him to "get down." The command had the ring of law enforcement, he said.
But as the man came within 10-feet of him, Klemme said it was clear he was being held up. The man in sunglasses, cargo shorts and a hat was pointing a handgun straight at him and he had no choice but to comply, he said.
"It was either that or die," Klemme said.
After some confusion, he identified defendant Robert "Steve" Starling, 35, a former Santa Rosa police officer, as the gunmen in the May 18 robbery. Initially, though, he pointed to co-defendant Andrew Cooper Esslinger, 27, who is accused of being an accomplice. Klemme corrected himself after noticing Starling sitting in the courtroom with his lawyer, Jeff Mitchell.
"He was the one who did it," Klemme said from the witness stand while being questioned by Mitchell. "I'm nervous as heck and you were blocking my view."
The testimony came in the first day of a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for trial for the two men. Both were arrested last summer in connection with armored car holdups in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Novato from September 2007 through May.
Authorities have not disclosed how much money was taken in the robberies, although the trucks were delivering a total of nearly $700,000. In each case, the gunman took bags contains the paper currency, leaving the coin behind, police have said.
Starling, a Santa Rosa officer for more than three years, is charged with eight felonies and a misdemeanor that could send him to prison for about 35 years if he is convicted, prosecutor Mariana Green said.
Esslinger is charged with five felonies, including involvement in the Sebastopol and Novato heists. He faces 10 years if convicted. Both have entered not guilty pleas and remain in Sonoma County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Prosecutors allege Starling used his knowledge as a patrolman and a former armored-car company employee to pull off the robberies that netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Starling was the gunman and Esslinger was the getaway driver or lookout, police said.
Both are charged with placing fake 911 calls to dispatchers - in one case claiming there was a man with a gun at Rancho Cotate High in Rohnert Park - to create diversions.
Cell phone records led first to Esslinger, who told police about the elaborate operation.
Santa Rosa police Detective Mark Mahre testified Monday that Esslinger admitted that he bought pre-paid cell phones under assumed names and used them to place diversion calls. Esslinger said the calls were scripted in advance by Starling, who knew from his police experience what to say, Mahre said.
For an attempted heist in Novato, Esslinger said he called dispatchers reporting a girl was kidnapped, Mahre said. In the Rohnert Park job, which had to be scrapped, he placed the call that led to a lockdown of the high school, Mahre said.
For his work on the Sebastopol robbery, Esslinger was paid $5,000, Mahre said. It was a tiny fraction of the amount Starling is accused of taking from armored cars over a period of about two years, other witnesses testified.
About $180,000 was being delivered in a September 2007 hold-up at Exchange Bank on Stony Point Road, a detective testified. Starling also is accused in a Santa Rosa robbery outside a Bank of America in Montgomery Village in 2008 in which $400,000 was being delivered, although the gunman dropped part of it as he fled. In that case, a man posing as a groundskeeper pulled a gun on an armored car guard and yelled "freeze," a detective said.
A witness, Daniel Sullivan, testified Monday that he knew Esslinger from high school and became acquainted with Starling during regular poker matches.
At one time, Sullivan said Starling showed him a newspaper article about one of the heists and said he did it. The he asked Sullivan if he wanted to be a lookout on the next robbery, Sullivan said.
Starling told him they wouldn't get caught because he was an ex-cop and knew how to avoid arrest. Also, he said he used a police radio scanner to know where officers were at all times, Sullivan said.
But Sullivan declined to get involved. He said Starling warned him never to tell anyone and threatened him, he said.
"His demeanor changed," Sullivan said. "He told me if I ever told anyone he would find me. I thought he would find me and kill me."
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