The surviving suspect of a 1997 botched Vancouver bank robbery that ended in a deadly shootout with police will be retried on new charges, including attempted murder, after his convictions were vacated.
Ronald Jay Bianchi, 45, was in Clark County Superior Court on Friday to withdraw his guilty pleas, entered in May 1998, to 13 counts in connection with the robbery at the former Seafirst Bank branch on East Mill Plain Boulevard, court records show. The then-26-year-old pleaded guilty to prevent his wife, who was originally charged as an accomplice, from going to prison and state workers from taking their infant daughter.
Among the charges he pleaded guilty to were three counts of attempted first-degree felony murder.
Bianchi has been serving a 72-year prison sentence for the crimes. However, a state appeals court in February granted Bianchi’s post-appeal petition — which he filed without counsel — and vacated his three convictions for attempted felony murder, because it does not exist as a crime in Washington.
The prosecution agreed with Bianchi on those three counts but argued that by vacating those convictions, it should not be prevented from filing amended charges for three counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Bianchi countered that he should then be able to withdraw his guilty pleas to all 13 counts.
The appeals court ruled that because the plea agreement was invalid, both sides could start over.
On Friday, the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed new charges against Bianchi: three counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree robbery, second-degree assault, attempted second-degree assault, attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, three counts of first-degree possession of stolen property, all involving a firearm, and second-degree malicious explosion.
Judge Robert Lewis also granted Bianchi’s motion to withdraw his previously-entered guilty pleas.
His bail was set at $5 million, court records show.
On the day of the robbery, Bianchi and two alleged accomplices, Aaron Lee Ahern, 25, and Michael Judson Brock, 24, set off a pipe bomb as a diversion behind Kmart on Andresen Road. They then entered the bank about 2 miles away, armed with guns and wearing trench coats and ski masks. They stole several thousand dollars, prosecutors alleged.
Ahern and Brock were killed following a shootout with three law enforcement officers during a high-speed chase.
Bianchi allegedly drove the stolen getaway car, which was spotted by a Clark County sheriff’s sergeant who gave chase. Ahern and Brock fired at the officer out of the car windows and tossed a grenade at another pursuing Vancouver police cruiser, but it didn’t go off.
Bianchi crashed the car on Blandford Drive and a gun battle ensued. Bianchi, who later claimed that he tried to surrender, escaped into a wooded ravine. He was captured a short time later near Fort Vancouver High School, according to Columbian archives.
