The fate of Logan Griffith, a Bayfield man who stands accused of using a loaded gun to rob a retail marijuana store in Durango with his father, Joe Griffith, remained undetermined Thursday morning after District Court Judge Jeffrey Wilson said he was “seriously considering rejecting the plea agreement” offered by prosecutors.
Under the proposed plea agreement, Logan would serve six years in the Youthful Offender System instead of being sentenced to prison in return for pleading guilty to second-degree assault on a peace officer and aggravated robbery, a Class 3 felony.
Griffith, 20, was 19 years old when the crime he’s accused of committing took place.
At the sentencing hearing at La Plata County Courthouse on Thursday morning, Wilson refused to rule on the plea agreement until he saw the pre-sentencing report issued by the district’s Division of Probation Services on the appropriateness of the program for Griffith. Wilson scheduled another sentencing hearing July 16.
At the hearing, Griffith looked ashen after learning that his family members, who had gathered hoping to speak on his behalf, would have to wait for another opportunity to address the court.
Besides lawyers, the only person who spoke at the sentencing hearing was Durango Police Department Cpl. Nicholas Stasi, one of two officers who apprehended Griffith just blocks from the marijuana dispensary he is accused of holding up at gunpoint.
Logan and his father are charged with robbing Rocky Mountain High at Ptarmigan Center II, East Animas Road (County Road 250) and Florida Road (County Road 240) on Jan. 31.
Authorities say Joe Griffith posed as a customer at the marijuana dispensary, while Logan, armed with a handgun and wearing a hoodie and ski mask, tied up his father and two clerks before making off with $3,000 in cash and a substantial amount of marijuana.
Prosecutors have also offered Joe Griffith, who is awaiting legal resolution of his case in La Plata County jail, a plea bargain, but the terms are not as yet public. Right now, he is charged with four counts of armed robbery as well as crime of violence – a sentence enhancer – and faces many years in prison if found guilty at trial.
At the hearing, Stasi said in the course of arresting Logan Griffith, “We ended up in the biggest fight of my career. For two minutes, there were multiple Taser deployments. At one point, (Logan) tried cuffing my partner with her own handcuffs. And he made the admission that he was going to shoot anybody” at the marijuana dispensary “who didn’t cooperate and cut off their toes or fingers.”
Still, Stasi told the judge, sending Griffith to the Youthful Offender System “probably is not a bad decision for Mr. Griffith.”
In an interview after the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Reid Stewart said offenders who are sentenced to prison frequently serve much less time than they are originally sentenced because of the Department of Correction’s complicated time-served calculus.
Stasi told the judge if Logan were sentenced to the Youthful Offender System, he would actually serve six years and not be credited with “good days.”
Stasi said he perceived a “strong benefit” in Griffith getting six years in the youth system rather than going to prison.
“He will get some education. It’s a much more regulated environment than if he was sent straight to DOC,” Stasi said. “He had no criminal history before. While this is a pretty extreme crime, he was strongly influenced by his father. A new influence in his life could change that, and I would prefer not to see him be institutionalized but become a useful citizen in the Durango area, where he has strong family ties.”
Shirley Steinbeck, administrative services manager of the Youthful Offender System, said the program is specifically designed for people who commit crimes of violence between the ages of 14 and 19.
“It’s a very strict environment,” she said, citing the program’s robust schedule of required vocational, educational and cognitive training.
“Prison isn’t as structured,” she said, and its rates of recidivism – 47 percent of people reoffend within three years of being released from a Department of Corrections facility – are more than double Youthful Offender System’s 20 percent. It’s very successful,” she said.
Sixth Judicial District Attorney Todd Risberg said, “a lot of people don’t understand what the Youthful Offender system is. But this is exactly what it is for.”
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
