Community Corner

Laguna Fast Food Robber Pleads Guilty, Sentenced to Five Years

David Brian Mattson pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted robbery of the Laguna Beach Jack in the Box and Village Mart.

A 49-year-old transient pleaded guilty Friday to holding up multiple fast food restaurants and other businesses in the drive-through lane and was immediately sentenced to five years in prison, according to court records.

David Brian Mattson pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted second-degree robbery and a count of second-degree robbery, all felonies, according to court records. Ten felony counts of attempted second-degree robbery were dismissed.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Robison sentenced Mattson, who was given credit for serving 679 days in jail. following an attempted robbery at the Laguna Beach , according to Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz.

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Mattson, who was living out of his car, pulled into the drive-through lane and tried to hold up the restaurant with a fake gun, Kravetz said. But as was the case in several of the stickups Mattson was accused of, the clerk slammed the window shut, Kravetz said.

A police sergeant who drove to S. Coast Highway and Broadway after the Jack in the Box stickup, because it is one of the only ways out of Laguna Beach, did not realize initially that Mattson went there afterwards to rob the at 120 South Coast Highway, Kravetz said.

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Mattson was wearing a plastic bag over his head and demanding money from the gas station attendant when he saw the sergeant's patrol car and walked out of the gas station empty-handed, Kravetz said.

The clerk chased after Mattson, hollering that the would-be robber had a gun, leading the sergeant to arrest Mattson, according to Kravetz.

Police found a fake handgun in Mattson's pocket and his black 2006 Chevrolet Malibu was parked nearby on Broadway, Kravetz said.

Mattson's last known address was in Lake Forest.

— City News Service


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