Two armed robbers in separate, unrelated crime sprees in Point Loma and elsewhere were sentenced last week to lengthy terms in state prison.
Daryl Keith Woods, 45, of San Diego, was sentenced to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to holding up a 7-Eleven store on Midway Drive and seven other robberies in which several thousand dollars were taken.
Woods requested immediate sentencing, which San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeff Fraser provided, along with a fine of $1,140.
Michael Todd Divittorio, 46, was given 15 years in prison from San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth on Feb. 6. Divittorio pleaded guilty to stealing from the Lowe’s store in San Marcos on Dec. 17, 2006, and to robbing the Pier 1 Imports at 1735 Hancock St. on Dec. 24, 2006.
The clerk who was held up that Christmas eve reported to police the robber told her: “Miss, I want you to have a Merry Christmas, but I need you to open the cash register and give me all the money.” He told the clerk he wanted all the money under the drawer.
The clerk told Divittorio that she couldn’t open the register without scanning an item for purchase or she would have to call the manager, according to Divittorio’s probation report. Divittorio grew impatient and handed the clerk an item to scan, which she did, and opened the register. He took $261.
The clerk in the San Marcos case told police she was working in the garden center and said the robber chose a plant and initially offered her $3 to pay for it. Once she had the register open, Divittorio showed her a gun and robbed her of $811.
Divittorio also pleaded guilty to committing 10 other robberies, one attempted robbery and a carjacking across the county. Smyth gave Divittorio credit for spending the last year in jail.
Divittorio, of Spring Valley, was also ordered to pay more than $27,300 to all the victims. Smyth also fined Divittorio more than $11,100. Divittorio made off with at least several hundred dollars in each holdup, but the largest amount he took was $6,000 from a department store in National City, according to court records.
Divittorio pleaded guilty to most of the charges in March, but his sentencing was put on hold for many months after authorities linked him to several more robberies elsewhere. Divittorio often said the same thing to employees at stores before he robbed them. He typically would ask, “Do you know how to follow orders?”
That typically got their attention, and he either showed a gun or implied he had one, records show.
Divittorio was arrested Jan. 12, 2007, following a freeway chase after a sheriff’s deputy noticed the license plate number of the Toyota Solaris Divittorio was driving showed it had been stolen. Divittorio left the vehicle and officers had to Taser him to subdue him, according to court records. He was found to be in possession of a small amount of methamphetamine and a glass pipe.
Although Woods received a much longer sentence for fewer robberies that Divittorio, Woods also was convicted of 11 robberies in 1992, and the judge took his previous record into consideration. Woods has served 14 years in prison.
In 1990, Woods briefly escaped from a jail in El Cajon by tying bedsheets together and lowering himself from the 7th floor. He fell three stories, broke his foot and was recaptured.
Woods robbed the 7-Eleven store on Midway Drive on July 10 and was arrested two days later. Despite his record, his friends and family posted a $500,000 bond, and he was free for most of 2007. However, he committed another robbery in December 2007 and found himself back in jail. This time, his bail was set at $3 million.
Woods wrote a letter to the judge and said he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol during all of his robberies.
“I am an addict,” Woods wrote.
Woods unsuccessfully asked the judge for a suspended sentence of 31 years under terms of probation in which he could be housed at a residential drug-treatment facility. Fraser denied probation.