The getaway driver in 11 robberies and attempted holdups in La Jolla, Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and elsewhere was sentenced July 1 to one year he has already served and was released from jail on terms of three years’ probation. Benjamin Hernandez, 24, of National City, was released because his jail credits totaled 1,028 days, as he received credit for good behavior while in jail since his arrest in early 2014. The actual gunman, Joseph Andres Garcia, 20, of San Diego, received seven years in prison on May 18. Both men may be liable for paying the victims back, and restitution hearings will be scheduled later, although much of the property was recovered by police. Both men pleaded guilty to committing two robberies, and the other charges were dismissed in San Diego Superior Court. Hernandez could have a received a six-year prison term. The victims included 10 men and one woman accosted on Feb. 2, 2014. One victim remembered Hernandez’s car license plate, which led to Hernandez’s arrest. The robberies started in Ocean Beach at 6:50 p.m., when the robbers and a juvenile approached three men on Cape May near Cable Street. The men lost their cell phones, their cigarettes and a lighter. A man then lost his cell phone at 7:10 p.m. and another lost his wallet containing $2, credit cards and ID cards at 7:40 p.m. on First Avenue in Hillcrest, according to the probation report. Another Hillcrest man was robbed at 9:15 p.m. of $250. Another man who was standing outside his apartment at 10:42 p.m. had a gun put to his head and was given three seconds to give up his phone. One bandit hit him with a tire iron. A group of UCSD students were then robbed while sitting on a bench outside the school gym. One bandit held a tire iron, and the students were robbed of their cell phones, student IDs, wallets and credit cards. – Neal Putnam