A member of the Back Door Bandits was sentenced Dec. 1 to eight years in state prison after pleading guilty to multiple robbery charges involving the Smashburger restaurant in La Jolla and other restaurants.
Duran Montiq Caldwell was ordered to pay $2,675 to one employee of the Smashburger restaurant on Prospect Avenue. Five other employees were also robbed that same night, Aug. 4, 2013.
Caldwell, 25, was also ordered by San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers to pay $853 to a Rigoberto’s Taco Shop restaurant in La Jolla and $440 to a Roberto’s restaurant elsewhere. Caldwell received credit for 556 days in jail.
Deputy District Attorney Jayln Wang also announced guilty pleas by the ringleader, Ryan Patrick Churchill, 23, who admitted to committing 11 robberies and two attempted robberies. Churchill’s trial was set to begin Dec. 2, and he will be sentenced Dec. 23. Wang said he faces a maximum 14-year prison term. Churchill remains in jail on $500,000 bail.
Wang also said a juvenile, now 18, was prosecuted in Juvenile Court for robbery and is awaiting sentencing. The getaway driver, Thomas Abel Nelson, 24, pleaded guilty to robbing Smashburger and will be sentenced on Jan. 8. Nelson is free on $50,000 bond.
The group got their nickname from entering and leaving out the back door of restaurants. The El Cotixan restaurant in La Jolla was held up along with others in Clairemont and Rancho Penasquitos.
Rogers heard 35 witnesses in the six-day preliminary hearing in May before he ordered the three to stand trial. Wang said only the employees were robbed by the bandits and that no customers were held up. –Neal Putnam