Speaker 1: M h.
Speaker 2: A wall street line, shackle change, Oh someome girdy, it's
calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been
a tentery juice as the hill Stream game Rango, the three.
Speaker 3: Com in.
Speaker 1: By me to die inside these walls, inside the wild.
Speaker 3: Hadn't went more girls. I Hey everyone, and welcome back
to Bloody Angola, a podcast of one and forty two
years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest prison.
I'm Jim Chapman, and today I have a really interesting
story I am bringing you regarding an armored truck robbery
that occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Now, this robbery resulted
in the murder of a limits armored truck security guard.
His name was Hector Trouchez. Now, before we get into
the robbery, which took place on December eighteenth of twenty thirteen,
I want to tell you a little bit about Hector Trouchez.
Hector was born in Honduras in nineteen sixty eight and
made his way all the way to Kenner, Louisiana. This
is an outskirts if you will, of New Orleans. Now
at the time of the incident, I'm going to tell
you about. He had been married for thirteen years and
he had been an armored truck guard for over five years,
so he was very experienced. He was forty five years
old at the time of his murder, and he was
just loving life. He loved his job, and we'll get
into a little bit more of that now. Judging by
the comments on his obituary, he was a very beloved
human being, very respected. People called him Big Daddy. That
was his nickname because he was a rather large man.
He was six foot one and he was probably close
to three hundred pounds, just a big man. So, as
I mentioned, Hector worked for Loomis Armor Car and this
company specializes in transporting large amounts of cash. They are
a global company. They not only have services in the US,
but various points around the globe. And not only do
they transport cash, they transport jewels and they transport other
high value sensitive material. Now, I am sure everyone listening
has seen these trucks at your local Walmart, for example.
But where they are most prevalent is banks, and they
service a lot of ATMs as well. And that's exactly
what Trochez was doing this day. In December of twenty thirteen.
Now Hector work as part of a team and they
were tasked with safeguarding this cash during transport. And y'all
stop and think about it for a second. How dangerous
is this job. You're basically driving around and at any
given time you have millions of dollars in some cases
at your disposal. It's in your vehicle. And really everyone
knows that you spot these armored trucks pretty easily when
they're driving around the road. I mean, they're like giant tanks, right.
It takes a lot of bravery to be part of
an armored truck personnel. Now, you also have to be
a pretty stand up citizen to work for Loomis. They
conduct one of the most stringent background checks probably ever
known to man. Think about it, without really digging into
someone's background, how easy would it be for someone to be,
let's say, nefarious or having nefarious intent and want to
score a ton of cash and make it easy on themselves.
So they you know, they get a job working for
like Loomis and that's their in. So they really spend
a lot of money and a lot of time checking
the backgrounds of the individuals they hire. And that speaks
to me a lot about Hector's character. Now, these armored trucks,
they're very secure as well, as I just mentioned, they're
like tanks. Among the features they have ballistic protection. These
are heavy metal plates completely surrounding the vehicle and that
means that the truck is armored to withstand gunfire. And
in addition, the glass is bullet resistant. And y'all, it's
a misnomer when people tell you glasses bullet per glasses,
not bullet proof. Eventually, if you shoot a piece of
even heavy armored glass enough times, it's gonna break and
bullets will make it through. But it is very bullet
resistant and it would take a lot of bullets to
really get through there. These armored trucks also have onboard
surveillance cameras in the vehicle, and those cameras they focus
on blind spots around the vehicle when of course, they
also have GPS, so these vehicles can be tracked at
all times. And the staff that is hired by these
armored truck companies, they're highly trained. They know how to
deal with dangerous situations as well as how to de
escalate situations if needed. And of course all of these
guards carry firearms. You'd be crazy not to. So on
December eighteenth of twenty twenty three, Hector was performing his
duties as a Lumis security guard in the New Orleans area. Now,
in this case, rather than picking up cash from the bank,
the truck was delivering cash to the bank. They were
actually servicing the ATM and they were going to refill it.
And this was a New Orleans location of Chase Bank,
and on board to be filled into that ATM machine
with some two sixty to two hundred and sixty five
thousand dollars. Now, for this cash delivery, there were two
people in the armored truck. The driver a female by
the name of a Jane Tredo, and Hector was the guard.
That was the one who would actually leave the truck
with the cash and fill the ATM. So on this day,
Hector steps out of the truck, he starts to unload
the cash, and as soon as he does that, a
Chevy Tahoe pulls up and three armed men step out
and they basically tell Hector to give them the money.
He's like fuck, that pulls his gun and a shootout
ensues right away and he insured is killed in broad daylight,
and the robbers. They get away with two hundred and
sixty to two hundred and sixty five thousand dollars. And
the reason that I keep saying that is their various
reports of exactly how much cash it was, but two
sixty plus to be certain. And all this occurs in
about a minute, y'all, from this guy pulling up to
the ATM, probably thinking about what he's going to do
over the weekend, to being dead. It happened that fast. Now,
as I said, this was in broad daylight. There were
a ton of eye witnesses, but one brave eyewitness to this.
He actually he jumps in his truck and he follows
these guys. He sees the men pull over at some point,
and look, they knew this guy was following them because
they took shots at him during this getaway. But at
some point they do exit that tahoe. They get out
and they get into a gray vehicle, which this guy
sees all that, and he reports this to the police
and he tells them, hey, the tahoe, here's where they
jumped out of that and jumped in another vehicle. Police
then go to that scene and they pick up that
vehicle and the engine was still running when they picked
it up, so they didn't even turn the car off.
They basically jumped out of it. As you would think,
this is a big deal. City of New Orleans lit
up with the headlines of this happening, and family and
friends of Hector would quickly come out in the media
and they would talk about how Hector just loved his job,
and they made a big point of saying he was
never fearful. He wasn't someone that was ever worried about
getting shot or anything like that. He said, Hey, if
it happens, it happens. I love what I do. Just
a very brave guy. Police they quickly hold a news
conference and they released descriptions of these suspects, and they
described all three as being five foot seven to five
foot nine, all wearing dark jackets and hooded sweatshirts, and
they said one of the suspects may have had dreadlocks.
And the media then spoke to some people that were
on that scene. There were witnesses to this. I mean
there were people everywhere. This was eleven o'clock in the
morning during a weekday when all of this went down,
and they got some reactions. A firearms instructor who they
talked to that actually lived a few houses away from that.
Chase Bank said, Hey, it's Christmas. People get desperate and
they'll do anything. This is New Orleans, after all, anything
can happen in broad daylight. He went on to say
that the rapid succession of the gunfire, which he estimated
is about a dozen shots, sounded like he came from
a semi automatic weapon with either a nine millimeter or
forty caliber bullets. That was his take A technician with
a Take five oil change that was across the street
from the bank. He also said he heard about a
dozen gunshots, and he said he saw cars stream out
of the parking lot very quickly, and he said it
wasn't the robbers that he saw running out of that
parking lot, it was other customers. It freaked everybody out
and they started clearing out of there for obvious reasons,
and investigators when they corned off this scene, they laid
about fifteen cones out to more bullet casings, so that
would lead you to believe there were at least fifteen
shots in that quick of an amount of time. And incidentally,
later on it would be discovered that Hector was never
able to return fire on these guys. Jim, did you
see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell
me that, let me tell you what happened in New York.
It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should
do a podcast about it, and with that we did.
Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have
dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over
the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime
War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts,
simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link
in the description of this podcast. Now you may be wondering,
what about a driver of the Loomis armored car. Well,
she was unharmed. However, she was also pinned down as
one of the three assailants that was shooting was firing
in her direction the entire time, and that was intentional,
that was planned, and that was to keep her from
exiting that vehicle and being able to return fire herself. Now,
this brave female's aunt came out later on and said
her niece called her in tears, telling her, hey, my
partner Hector was shot, and her aunt said she was crying,
she was very overwhelmed and very much in grief. And
it was I most leading me to believe that she
kind of blamed herself for not being able to get
out of that armored car and assist Hector. And obviously
she there's no blame to be shown on her shoulders.
I mean, if someone is pinning you down and you
can't get out of a vehicle, it is what it is.
Otherwise you would both be dead. So, just a few
days after the incident took place, the New Orleans Police
Department chief he comes out and he vows to catch
the three gunmen responsible, and he also announces a fifty
thousand dollars combined reward for information leading to the arrest
of anybody involved. And that's important because people love to
wrap people out when it comes to money, right, And
if these guys have been running their mouth to anybody
bragging about getting away with this, seemingly, fifty thousand dollars
is a lot of money and a lot of enticement
to possibly get somebody to telling you're ass and that
was what the police were hoping for. However, time passes
several weeks and there's no suspects, at least that the
police are telling people. Then three weeks after the robbery,
on January second of twenty fourteen, police were boom. Then
just a few weeks after the robbery, on January second
of twenty fourteen, police release a composite sketch of a
person of interest, and they also released the fact that
the witness who saw the robbers get out of the
original car and into that gray car, he did manage
to get a partial plate number that included the numbers
one four one six' five four and it was a temporary.
Tag so police at this point they weren't sure if
this was a good lead or. NOT i, mean how
hard is it to get a temporary? Tag was probably,
stolen is what they were, thinking but, hey it's better than.
Nothing and, then at least in front of the, public
the trail seemed to run, cold and that is until
police provided another, update and this was In april of twenty,
fourteen four months after the, robbery and they announced that
a screwdriver found inside the, tahoe which incidentally was. Stolen
as a matter of, fact that screwdriver was used to
break the steering column and enable that tyhoe to be hot. Wired,
well they took that screwdriver and they tested it FOR,
dna and they managed to PULL dna off of that
screwdriver and link it to a man by the name
Of Little Bear. George that's, Right lil B, Ear Little Bear,
George and they did their homework on this before they
Tied Little bear to it outside of THE dna and
they talked to the owner and they, said, hey do
you know Little bear did he work on your vehicle
and maybe that's why HIS dna is on that. Screwdriver
and the owners, like, NO i have no idea who
this guy. Is so police start Retracing Lil bear's movements
after the robbery and they discover that shortly thereafter he
made kind of a big. Purchase, WELL i would say
a lot of a big. Purchase he paid fifty thousand
dollars cash for a. Vehicle and this wasn't a man
that just walked around with fifty thousand dollars, Cash SO
i told you a. Lot, also at this, time it
came Out hector was killed with a two twenty three
caliber rifle and that one of the bullets had shot
him in the head and police said that that particular
shot was fired from the. Vehicle so police have what
appears to be a, suspect a solid suspect at this.
Time and this is great because when you have a
crime involving multiple people and you make that first, arrest
what typically happens is that first, guy aulmost always is
going to write out the other guys most times to
get some sort of. Deal but there's one problem in
the case A Little, bear and that is that he
fled the state and. Police they had no idea Where
Little Bear george, was and By december eighteenth of twenty,
fourteen exactly one year since the shootout that Killed hector Trutch,
as not a single arrest had been made in this.
Case not saying they didn't work, it they just couldn't
find anybody and they didn't have a whole lot of
leads outside Of Little. Bear so time passes and people,
forget and one of the things that's very important to
do when you have these unsolved cases is to continue
to do everything you can to keep them in the public,
forefront the public frame of, mind and so anniversaries of
these crimes are very important because they kind of reintroduce
the case to people that may not have caught it
the first time, around and it keeps a lot of
these cases from going completely. Cold and so police did.
That they came out on the. Anniversary as a matter of,
Fact Hector trouchez family and friends came out and they
held kind of a visual and all these, things trying
to keep this case in the forefront of the public,
mind but still no real needs to speak. Of, then
a little over two years after the, robbery On february
eleventh of twenty, sixteen police pull over a car in
The New orleans area and they pull four people out
of this. Car what had happened was this was state
police and they have watched essentially this car conduct a
drug deal with another, vehicle and they pull it over
and they search it and they, find of course. Drugs
they find fourteen thousand dollars in, cash some stolen guns and.
Heroin now one of the men inside that car guess
who it, Was Little Bear. George so police are. Ecstatic
they just caught this guy THAT'S DNA is on a
screwdriver that was in this crime from twenty, thirteen and
they bring him back and they're, Thinking, okay this guy
is going to sing like a fucking, canary and we're
going to find out everything about this case that we don't.
Know but the problem is apparently at this point Little
bear he ain't. Cooperating he's not saying. Much at least
that's what you would gather until nearly four years after the,
robbery when the following article was released via The Baton Ridge.
Advocate this was On november six of twenty, seventeen And
i'm gonna read it for you. Quickly headline Says feds
charge six in twenty, thirteen slang of an armored truck
Driver hector Trusch, az capping four year pro and it
goes on to, read nearly four years After, loomis armored
truck Driver hector Trusch az was fatally shot during an
elaborately plan hold up outside A carrollton area, bank prosecutors
have secured an indictment charging five men and one woman
in the. CASE a federal grand jury In New orleans
returned a four count indictment Accusing Chuck woody who goes
By Chuck, Ofamada Little, Bear George jeremy, Quote Pipe, Estevez curtis,
Quote Blow Johnson, Junior robert quote lil Rob bromfield the
third And Jasmine, theofhild of various roles in that robbery
that left Trutch as dead in late twenty. Thirteen ofamana
who is, Thirty george who is twenty, Eight esteves who
is thirty, One johnson who is twenty, five And, bromfield
who is twenty, four were all charged with plotting to
obstruct interstate commerce by Robbing trouch as truck and with
the deadly stick up, itself as well as using guns
to commit the. Crime the indictment also Accuses george And,
theiaffild his twenty four year old, girlfriend of obstructing a
grand jury proceeding by destroying a cell. Phone all of the,
defendants Except, bromfield who may be in The houston, area
have been. Arrested theophil was released on a ten thousand
dollars or. Bail the eleven page indictment capped a four
year investigation into one of the most publicized unsolved killings
in Recent New orleans, history and it came just a
week After ACTING Us Attorney Dwayne evans office unfurled a
separate indictment charging three other men in a similar deadly
caper this year The may thirty first robbery attempt that
Left loomis truck Driver james McBride faily wounded outside of
Mid City, bank AND i may cover that one as,
well BECAUSE i came across that when researching this. Episode
it goes on to read last week's indictment also linked
those three Suspects Armistead, keefer his Son Jerome, keefer and
Dal Tony scott to a twenty fifteen hold up of
A brince armored truck outside of bank near By You
Saint john so unrelated case but very, similar goes on to.
Say taken, together these indictments mean all of the major
armored truck heist were port In New orleans since twenty
thirteen have resulted in criminal. Charges all of the defendants
charged with having a hand in the deaths Of trochz
and McBride faced the possibility of the death, penalty though
prosecutors can decline pursuing that, option and we'll get into.
That the slang Of kenny Resident trutch has shot The
New orleans, area occurring one week Before christmas in broad
daylight outside of A chase bank On South carrollton And
South Claiborne, Avenue the forty five year old native Of,
honduras was gunned down after three mass riflemen oppress him
while he was delivering money to the bank's drive through
automated tailer. Machine the indictment did not say who the
government believes those riflemen. Were it was several months after
The truchess slayings before the names of two, Suspects george
And theophild became. Public An april twenty fourteen federal court
filing Reported GEORGE'S dna was detected on a screwdriver found
in this stolen suv used to carry out the attack
on Treutch. As it also Accused george of Fleeing louisiana
with a group of men driving another car belonging to his.
Girlfriend george later allegedly bought his girlfriend a new car
after the, robbery and that was that fifty thousand dollars car.
Purchase george has been in federal custody for more than
a year awaiting trial alongside several other defendants on gun
and drug charges in connection with the alleged drug deal
in The French quarter In february of twenty. Sixteen, meanwhile
the indictment in the trench ass case marks only the
latest of several legal battles For. Ophamata at some, point
two informants told The fbiophamaa had fatally shot a woman
and a man who owed money to a friend Of
opamada's Named Timothy. Webb the shootings took place At Webb's
Seventh ward chop shop In april of two thousand and,
eight and the victim's badly burned bodies turned up later
in the back of a car that had been Tours
according to multiple, sources these informants were speaking with federal,
investigators who apparently were probing the Trunch has. Killing THE
feds forwarded the allegations about the chop shop killings to
The New Orleans. Police Opha minah And webb were arrested In,
may and they are a waiting trial on state charges
of second degree murder in the chop shop. Killings both
have pleted not guilty to the slayings Of Jornelle sanders
And Candae. Glard earlier in twenty, sixteen a grand jury
Charged Opa minah and yet another, man Lydel, hinton with
being involved in sex trafficking of a Minor hint and
pleaded guilty in Late september to a reduced charge of
transporting an individual across state lines to engage in prostitution
and is awaiting sentencing Ofa mina meanwhile awaits trial in
that case as. Well, obviously this guy's a total jerk, off.
Right it's not clear to what Extent hinton is cooperating
in the trafficking case or if he will factor into
Troutch as. Prosecution Troutch as loved ones couldn't be reached
for Comment. Monday, however on A facebook page set up
in his memory that described their hope that investigators would
eventually charge someone in that, Case hector has never. Forgotten
the post said wishing authorities would find the heartless bastards
that did, this and it looks like they did finally
four years after the, robbery and there's movement on this.
Case everyone is arrested that was not already in, jail
with the exception of one, guy will Rob. Bromfield police
just simply could not locate this. Guy but that is
not and does not slow the prosecutions of the other
individuals that were. Involved they're not gonna wait until they
Find broomfield, Right and On august thirty, first twenty, eighteen
THE feds announced they would be seeking the death penalty
for three of the, Assailants Lil, Bear George Chuck, ofamaa
And curtis Blow. Johnson THE fed singled Out Opa maaa
as the triggerman during this, time and they said he
was the one who actually killed Trutch. As and in
addition to, that they announced he was charged in those
two additional murders that had just told you about that
occurred in two thousand and. Eight now there's more movement
in the. Case when In march of twenty, nineteen authorities
In texas finally tracked down and they Harassed Robert Lil Rob.
Bromfield and that was after sixteen months on THE lamb
and he was actually caught via a tip to the
hotline In. Texas guess, what somebody wanted to collect a
reward and he was. Caught somebody tipped off. Police he
was actually hiding out in A, Spring texas. Home when
police showed, up he took off, running but he was quickly.
Captured then On october second of twenty, Nineteen feds come
out and they, said, hey we're close to securing our
first conviction in this robbery and, murder and they Referenced
jasmine Thea, field the. Girlfriend, now it was alleged she
provided a vehicle To Little bear in a group of
other men that they used to get the hell out
Of dodge after the, robbery and there was also some
other allegations involved with. Her so THE feds come out
and they, say, hey we're about to get her. Convicted
but just a week, LATER feds announced they were postponing
her trial, indefinitely which let me to, believe wait a,
minute she's got to be cooperating and that's why they're
postponing his. Trial and that HUNCH i had seemed to be,
correct because just two weeks, later On october twenty third
of twenty, nineteen she pleads guilty to obstruction of justice
and she gets. Probation and there's only one way she
would ended up with, probation and that's if she was.
Cooperating then in Early november of twenty, nineteen a shocker
came out When fed's allege that someone by the name
Of Theory, king who was a bank employee at The Chase,
bank was in communication with one of the assailants before
and after the, robbery and that Was Jeremy estevez who
was communicating with This Chase bank. Employee it was discovered
later the banker actually told the robbers when this at
was going to be, serviced and she was promised fifteen
thousand dollars for helping to plan that. Robbery just disgusting
led in to someone's murder over fifteen thousand. Dollars. Crazy
so here's how everything shook out in this. Case Jasmine,
theafield the girlfriend Of Little. Bear she ended up pleading
guilty to. Obstruction she received. Probation Robert lil Rob. Brumfield
he was the guy who drove the second getaway, vehicle
that gray. Car he was convicted of conspiracy and he
was sentenced to twenty years in, Prison and they actually
tried to get him on murder as, well but he
was acquitted of the murder. Charge Jeremy, estevaz who drove
the initial getaway, vehicle The, Tahoe he was convicted of
robbery and murder charges and he received the heaviest. Sentence
fifty years. Now Chuck offamada was one of the three
gunmen to fire shots at Trutch. Azz he copped a
plea of guilty to using and discharging a firearm in
furtherance of a violent, crime and he ended up taking
a forty year, sentence which made me, SAY, wtf because
this is the guy that was also identified as the,
murderer the guy that actually fired the shot that shot
and killed Trutch, azz but they never charged him with.
Murder NOW i don't know exactly why that. IS i
can only assume that because he was up for murder
for two murders actually in two thousand and. Eight remember
they linked him to those crimes as. WELL i think
maybe they were going for life in prison or the
death penalty on those, cases and so they figured he's
already gonna be in prison for the rest of his life,
anyway at a, minimum and so they only sentenced him
to the forty. YEARS i have no clue because it
didn't make a whole lot of sense to, me but
that's what he, got forty years less less Than Jeremy.
Estavez how about a little Bear. George he also caught
a plea to the same charges As, opamana and he
received an identical forty year. Sentence and, Finally curtis Blow,
johnson who fired shots at the driver of That loomis
truck to keep her inside the. Vehicle he got the
worst of it as, well with a fifty year sentence
both him And. Estivaz and for the, record he was
the last conviction of this, Case curtis Blood, johnson and
that was In march of twenty twenty, two meaning it
took nine years to get all these guys convicted and
sent to, prison but not where you would. Think they
didn't go To bloody In. Gola, actually these guys Escaped
bloody In gola because the federal government took over this
case many years. PRIOR i think they just thought it
wasn't getting solved quick. Enough they took it over and
they did get these, convictions so shout out to. Them
but because of, that these guys were sent to federal
prisons And Louisiana State penitentiary and In goa is a state,
prison so they managed to escape. It and there you have.
It that is the story of That loomis armored truck,
robbery AND i may cover that other one as. Well
you'd be, surprised. Y'ALL i looked up THE fbi. STATS
i can't recall them off the top of my, head
but you'd be surprised how many armored trucks are actually.
Robbed i'm sure people drive around that have nefarious intent
and they're, like, Oh i'd love to rob that armored,
Truck but it actually happens pretty. Frequently as a matter of.
Fact right here In Baton, Ridge, louisiana yesterday an armored
truck got robbed at AN. Atm thankfully nobody was killed or.
Shot but it happens more often than you would, think
at least more often THAN i thought. Anyway check out
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crime Wire. Weekly this is a weekly podcasts put out
Every friday by myself and true crime Podcaster Kelly. Jennings
we cover full weeks crime headlines that are trending all
over The, internet and we do it in a unique.
Way you can find us just by searching Crime Wire
weekly wherever you listen to this, podcast Or i'll link
it in the description of this podcast as well so
you can find it. Also i'm recording this On october.
First this is the. Kickoff if you will Of Breast
Cancer Awareness. Month Breast Cancer Awareness month is very close
to my heart and so ladies out there get your
mammograms scheduled if you have not done. SO i have
my pink on today because real men will wear pink
For Breast Cancer Awareness. Month i'd just like to say,
that and until next. Time For bloody And, gola a
podcast one hundred, four two years in the, making the
complete story Of america's bloodiest Present peace A Wall street, line.
Speaker 2: Shackle, Change, oh Bluesome, girdie it's calling my. Name there
is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as
the huge stream Game wrangle. Three i'm, here be.
Speaker 1: By me to die.
Speaker 2: Inside these, walls.
Speaker 1: Inside No wow and when wir AS i know it's Abody,
Angler Obody angle