[1]Michael A. Lar, right, confers with defense attorney David Arcuri in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A 63-year-old repeat bank robber described as courteous and very literate spent about 30 minutes this morning engaged in oral arguments on his own case before Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt.
Michael A. Lar didn’t win on the point he made, but his life sentence was reduced to 18 years and six months.
“Mr. Lar, I have to tell you, you are the most confounding defendant I have had in my career,” Hunt said. “You are incredibly intelligent, very well-mannered and a violent criminal.”
Lar has multiple convictions for bank robbery, the earliest one local prosecutors could find was as far back as 1982.
According to Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh, Lar was released from prison in 1995, convicted again and released in January 2008.
He was arrested in January 2010 after an attempted robbery at Twin Star Credit Union in Centralia on South Gold Street.
Two employees arriving for work found a man who’d gotten inside by breaking a window. A responding police officer was able to pull one woman to safety and fired two shots before an hours-long standoff.
Police surrounded the bank, but after hiding in nearby bushes nearly 12 hours, a wounded Lar called a taxi and headed to Olympia, where he was arrested the same night, according to court documents.
After his trial in Lewis County Superior Court, Lar was found guilty of first-degree attempted robbery, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree burglary.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release, based on the so-called three strikes law. However, last year the state Court of Appeals reversed the sentence, saying his previous federal convictions were not comparable to “most serious” convictions under Washington law.
He appeared in court today, represented by Centralia defense attorney David Arcuri.
The discussion focused on how many points Lar had given previous convictions, for the purposes of computing the sentencing range that should apply.
Arcuri told the judge Lar wanted to make a legal argument, representing himself with Arcuri standing by.
He said his client was very well versed in the matter before the court.
“Mr. Lar knows the law about as well as any lawyer could,” Arcuri said.
Judge Hunt allowed it, noting his own experience showed him Lar was very learned in the area.
Lar cited case law addressing whether his two federal bank robbery convictions were comparable to state convictions, for the purposes of determining his “points.” Arcuri stepped back from the defense table, returning to help turn pages for the handcuffed defendant.
Judge Hunt ultimately agreed with Beigh however.
Hunt imposed 140 months for the first-degree burglary, 222 months for first-degree kidnapping and 120 months for first-degree attempted robbery, all to be served concurrently.
Among the other orders were no contact with the victim and some $493 restitution to the credit union.
At the end of the hearing, Arcuri handed the judge notice of Lar’s intent to appeal.
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For background, read “Life sentence overturned for Twin Star bank robber” from Tuesday April 21, 2015, here