Sawblades to sentencing: ATM thief gets 60 years

THE WOODLANDS, TX – A Montgomery County jury found Ricky Garcia guilty of Attempted Theft of an ATM (<$300,000) following a three-day trial in the 359th District Court, with the Honorable Judge Kathleen Hamilton presiding. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Merit Marshall of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

The jury heard evidence that, in the early morning hours of April 28, 2023, Garcia and co-defendant Lazaro Martinez attempted to break into a Bank of America ATM on College Park Drive in The Woodlands. Surveillance footage presented at trial showed the two men using power tools to cut through the machine’s steel casing and pry open its reinforced doors.

As deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene, Martinez was apprehended near the ATM, while Garcia fled into a nearby wooded area. K9 Deputy Mark Cendejas deployed his two-year-old Dutch Shepherd, Chico, who successfully tracked Garcia into the brush where he was located and taken into custody.

After only thirty-five minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict. During the sentencing phase, Judge Hamilton heard about Garcia’s extensive criminal history, which includes at least nine prior felony theft convictions dating back to 1982, as well as a 2023 prison sentence for Assault Family Violence by Strangulation. The Court also learned that Garcia had previously cut through the roof of a bank to loot safe deposit boxes.

Given Garcia’s long history of theft and violence, Judge Hamilton imposed a 60-year sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The punishment range was 25 years to life due to Garcia’s criminal record.

Garcia’s co-defendant, Lazaro Martinez, who did not have Garcia’s extensive criminal background, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the 359th District Court on March 12, 2024.

Assistant District Attorney Merit Marshal said, “Ricky Garcia has spent more than four decades preying on others. With the jury’s swift verdict and the court’s firm sentence, his long-running criminal career has finally been brought to an end.”

District Attorney Brett Ligon said, “It’s unlikely Ricky Garcia will learn any lesson outside of hard time in TDC. It’s also unlikely he’ll ever set foot outside those walls a free man. He has misspent his youth, and the payment to society is his remaining years behind bars.”