A jury Monday convicted a man who was nicknamed the “Chameleon Bandit” of robbing the Navy Federal Credit Union in Chula Vista and holding up nine other tellers in other banks.
The eight woman, four man jury deliberated 9 1/4 hours over three days before convicting Darius Demon Lake, 29, of El Cajon, in San Diego Superior Court.
Lake got the nickname because of his changing appearances in robberies that occurred in Oct., 2017.
The net loss to all six banks was $16,801.
Lake held up the credit union on Oct. 27, 2017, and tellers and one customer at other banks in El Cajon, Point Loma, and San Marcos.
Jurors deadlocked 6-6 on two robbery charges in which the tellers could not identify Lake as the bandit when they were held up on Oct. 10 in El Cajon.
The jury saw a video Lake made with him posing with money scattered around in the back seat of a car minutes after the Chula Vista robbery.
“He’s proud of being the Chameleon Bandit,” said Deputy District Attorney Lucille Yturralde in her closing argument. “He feels he earned it.”
Lake will appear Feb. 9 before Judge Robert O’Neill.
O’Neill will look at federal documents to see if the 2012 convictions of bank robbery are valid, as this will affect the sentence Lake will receive.
Yturralde said Lake could get a maximum term of 125 years to life in prison. Since Lake is a third strike defendant he faces 25 years to life for robbing five banks.
Yturralde told jurors that Lake used the money to buy $180 lap dances, and purchases of jewelry and champagne.
Jurors got to see bank camera videos, and the prosecutor noted a cursive tattoo on Lake’s neck was seen on bank camera photos.
His attorney, Jeremy Thornton, argued Lake did not commit any of the hold-ups and was only arrested because of his past bank robbery convictions.
Thornton showed photos of Lake’s wrist, which was heavily tattooed, and bank photos of the robber’s wrist, which did not show the tattoos—possibly because of the lighting.
Lake’s palm print on a bank counter was mentioned by the prosecutor as a key piece of evidence, but Thornton urged jurors not to consider it because he said it was altered.
Thornton argued that none of the witnesses recalled seeing his tattoos. Yturralde argued that witnesses were “frightened for their life” and Lake was moving too fast for them to focus on his tattoos.
FBI special agent Alex Esconde testified the series was called the “Chameleon Bandit” because “it looked like he was changing his appearance.”
The bandit wore a hard hat in only the first robbery, and different styles of clothing in later hold-ups, said Esconde. Lake did not testify in the trial that began Jan. 25.
He was also convicted of attempted robbery in one incident in which there was no loss. He remains in jail on $500,000 bail.
