OAKLAND – A former fugitive has pleaded not guilty in connection with a 2022 armored truck robbery in which a security guard was shot in the back of the head and killed.
Artemio Torres, 28, pleaded no contest to aiding and abetting in exchange for prosecutors dropping a robbery charge against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October to two years of probation and has already served time in prison, court records show.
Torres’ co-defendant, Akbar Bey, is still in jail facing charges of murdered 60-year-old John Mendez during the robbery on Sept. 7, 2022. Prosecutors say Bey shot Mendez in the back of the head before getting into Torres’ vehicle and fleeing.
Both Bey and Torres were former employees of the trucking company GardaWorld, and allegedly planned to rob it when guards were leaving a Kaiser building in San Leandro. Bey and Mendez had been partners when Bey was employed there. Authorities say Bey and Torres were fired after being accused of embezzling money.
Bey was arrested shortly after the shooting, but Torres remained on the loose for more than a year after fleeing the state, police said. He was arrested on a robbery warrant last June and agreed to plead no contest on Aug. 16, records show.
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