The getaway driver in the Back Door Bandits hold-up of the Smashburger restaurant in La Jolla was sentenced Jan. 8 to 180 days in a work furlough project and was ordered to pay $2,675 in restitution. Thomas Abel Nelson, 24, will be permitted to work days, but he will sleep in a facility at night as part of three years’ probation, ruled San Diego Superior Court Judge Polly Shamoon. Nelson, free on $150,000 bond, will report to the work furlough facility on Jan. 15. Shamoon barred him from being on the premises of any Smashburger restaurant, saying that workers from the venue that was robbed could be transferred to another Smashburger store. Also sentenced Jan. 8 to probation was a robbery participant, who was 17 years old at the time but has since turned 18. His name was not part of the public record because he was prosecuted in juvenile court. He was convicted of grand theft and was ordered to maintain a 10 p.m. curfew. Nelson’s attorney, Michael Runkle, told Shamoon his client played “a very minor role as the driver of the vehicle” on Aug. 4, 2013. He noted his client’s parents, grandparents and girlfriend were in the courtroom audience. Shamoon lectured Nelson about his role, saying, “You took part in robbing people (who had) a gun to their face.” She added that some victims later receiving counseling. “It’s mind boggling why you got involved with it,” said Shamoon. Nelson was fined approximately $1,000 and given credit for eight days spent in jail before posting bond. Court records say Nelson drove the black sports car owned by Back Door Bandits ringleader Ryan Patrick Churchill, 24, who received 14 years and four months in state prison on Dec. 23. Churchill pleaded guilty Nov. 14 to 11 robberies and two attempted hold-ups. Another co-defendant, Duran Caldwell, 25, was sentenced Dec. 1 to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to five robberies in the series. Also held up were a Rigoberto’s Taco Shop and the El Cotixan restaurant in La Jolla. The robbers entered and left through the restaurants’ back doors. – Neal Putnam