A Corona man accused of robbing 10 businesses at gunpoint during a crime spree spanning Santa Ana, Westminster and Garden Grove was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Monday, Jan. 29.
The U.S. Department of Justice in Los Angeles said George Arizon, 28, used a handgun to threaten store employees at all of the businesses, demanding cash, and in one case cigarettes, on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8, 2022.
Among the stores he targeted were a 7-Eleven, a hair salon and eight restaurants.
In all, Arizon made off with $2,480 and two packs of cigarettes, said a federal law enforcement affidavit outlining the robberies.
Police eventually tracked Arizon to his Corona home through cell phone location data, as well as surveillance camera footage showing Arizon taking off and dumping a sweater with a NASA logo on it soon after the final robbery. Federal investigators said they found Arizon’s Facebook page with a photo of him wearing the same NASA sweater.
Arizon was sentenced Monday after agreeing in 2023 to plead guilty to one count of each of interference with commerce by robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the plea agreement. In the plea he admitted to the robbery spree, prosecutors said.
At Arizon’s hearing, the judge and prosecutors lent significant weight to his history of drug addiction and a life spinning out of control by the time he decided to rob the stores.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney also considered Arizon’s admittance of guilt as a reason to accept the plea agreement.
“This is a difficult case,” Carney said, adding he was “troubled with the harm on the victims.”
But Carney said he “appreciated what (Arizon) 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.”
While they had asked for more prison time, federal prosecutors also acknowledged Arizon’s troubled upbringing in Monday’s hearing. The judge noted Arizon grew up in an abusive household and witnessed the stabbing deaths of two of his close friends as a teenager.
“I think there is significant mitigation in this case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jena MacCabe said.
Carney also ordered Arizon to pay $3,658 to the victims of his crimes on top of his prison sentence.
Arizon also spoke during Monday’s hearing, apologizing for the crime spree.
“I won’t make excuses for the crimes I committed,” Arizon 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.”
Federal prosecutors said Arizon previously spent significant time in prison, but did not outline his previous convictions.
Another suspect in the robbery spree, Brandon Robinson, of Anaheim, who investigators accused of being Arizon’s getaway driver, was arrested the same day in 2022. But he has not been charged in the robbery case.
However, Robinson was indicted last year on suspicion of possessing three firearms at his home, despite an Orange County Superior Court order to forfeit any weapons after he was handed a restraining order telling him to cease threatening his child and an intimate partner in 2019.
City News Service contributed to this story.
