‘Career Criminal’ Given Stiff Sentence for Spree

SANTA ANA â€”  A 34-year-old man, branded a “career criminalâ€� by prosecutors after a spree of armed robberies, kidnapings and police shoot-outs in Orange County and Arizona, received a stiff sentence Tuesday that will probably keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Johnny Lee Mills, an ex-convict, drug addict and occasional construction worker, stood before Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown and said he was sorry for his crimes.

But Brown nonetheless handed Mills virtually the toughest sentence available--a life term, plus 28 years, to run immediately after a 35-year-sentence already imposed against Mills in Arizona.

If Mills receives all the breaks allowed in the prison systems in California and Arizona, he could hope for the possibility of parole at age 77, lawyers said. But more likely, his own attorney acknowledged, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

“This is a classic sociopath,� said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald Cafferty, who specializes in cases involving habitual or “career criminals.�

“He had certain goals--to get money for his drugs--and if you got in his way, he’d kill you, whether you were a civilian or a police officer or whatever. It’s a cowboy mentality . . . a real Jesse James.�

Mills pleaded guilty in September in Orange County Superior Court to charges of armed robbery, kidnaping and the attempted murders of two police officers.

A heroin addict since age 13 who served a robbery sentence in prison as a young adult, Mills had a favorite sawed-off shotgun that he called “baby,� authorities said.

During a crime spree that began in June, 1988, he used it to rob at least nine stores and businesses in the Santa Ana area, authorities said.

Authorities finally caught up with Mills on July 12, 1988--but only temporarily. When Mills and two other men were stopped by police in Santa Ana, Mills allegedly pulled his gun on an officer and fired three shots but missed. Fleeing the scene, Mills next allegedly stole a Southern California Edison truck at gunpoint and fired at another pursuing officer, missing again.

After abandoning the truck in Santa Ana, police said Mills then kidnaped a woman from her nearby apartment and forced her to drive him to a local hotel, where he and his family had been holed up. After treating his wounds with cocaine, he then robbed another bank of $6,000 and finally fled the area altogether, authorities said.

But the rampage did not stop there, authorities said. Mills, who grew up in Arizona, and a partner robbed several more banks in Phoenix in the weeks after the Santa Ana crime spree. Again, Mills fired at and missed a police officer in pursuit, and again he took a woman hostage to try to escape.

But this time, a neighbor of the hostage spotted the pair as they walked down the street and alerted police, who managed to capture Mills. He was later convicted on robbery and kidnaping charges.

Orange County police and officials in the career-criminals unit of the district attorney’s office connected Mills to the Santa Ana crimes and returned him to the area to face charges here.

Court-appointed defense attorney William D. Gallagher had wanted Brown to impose sentence against Mills to run at the same time as his Arizona convictions, thus allowing him the possibility of parole in perhaps 21 years.