Failed Bank Robber Pleads Guilty to Incident at Wells Fargo on La Jolla Village Drive

A woman who participated in a failed bank heist in which an accomplice was shot by a security guard pleaded guilty Friday to a robbery charge.

Laura Elshire, 42, who also admitted to possessing razor blades while in custody, faces 33 years to life in prison when she is sentenced Feb. 7, said Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Konstanzer.

Elshire was charged, along with Robert Anthony Hodge and Casey Allen Wilson, with holding up a Wells Fargo bank branch near La Jolla Village Drive, in which Wilson was shot in the face and arm.

During that June 11 robbery, Wilson told the teller to hurry and repeated the demand before switching on an electric stun gun he was carrying, according to court testimony.

A security officer, Luis Apodaca, testified at an earlier hearing that he realized what was happening and told Elshire, who was wearing a blond wig, to lie down on the floor along with Wilson. Instead, the witness said, Wilson began striding quickly toward the guard, prompting him to fire two shots.

Wilson ran out of the building with wounds to his face and one of his arms and got into a waiting car, which sped off. The getaway vehicle was allegedly driven by Hodge.

Inside the bank, while the two male suspects fled, the security guard said he again ordered Elshire to surrender. She refused and tried to flee, but the guard hit her over the head, tackled her and took her into custody, Apodaca testified.

About 45 minutes later, Wilson was dropped off at a hospital for treatment. Hodge was captured later in Mexico.

Hodge, 28, is charged in connection with a total of six bank robberies, including a second holdup at the La Jolla Village Wells Fargo branch. His trial is pending.

Wilson, 27, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from two robberies and was sentenced to five years in prison.

San Diego police robbery Detective DeWayne Glazewski testified that Hodge, in an interview after his arrest, confessed to his involvement in the "Dum Dum" robbery series, so named because one of the robbers took a jar of "Dum Dum" lollipops during one of the holdups.

Hodge told the detective that he held up a US Bank branch in El Cajon on Oct. 26, 2012, and said Wilson was the getaway driver, Glazewski testified.

Hodge told him that he teamed up again with Wilson to rob a US Bank in Santee on Nov. 21, 2012, the detective said.

Glazewski said Hodge also confessed to robbing a Wells Fargo bank on Del Mar Heights Road last Jan. 3 and a Wells Fargo branch with Wilson near La Jolla Village last May 7, and additionally said that he was joined by Wilson and another man in robbing a Wells Fargo bank in 4S Ranch last May 30.