NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Crescent City man who attempted to rob two women at knifepoint in Ukiah five days before last Christmas has been sentenced to state prison for a cumulative 98 years to life.
The heavily tattooed, 50-year-old Robert Lee White – also known as Robert Lee Stanley, Tracy Lee Mark and “Gypsy” – appeared Friday afternoon to listen as Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke rendered his judgment and imposed final sentencing.
White has been represented by Deputy Public Defender Dan Haehl.
At the conclusion of a trial held on April 3, Judge Behnke entered guilty verdicts against White on two counts of attempted robbery and one count of threatening the husband of one of the victims.
The court also found as true that White used a knife in each of the three crimes and that he had previously been convicted of four prior “strike” convictions.
According to the background investigation conducted by the Mendocino County Probation Office, White began his first prison commitment in 1982 at the age of 18 years for first degree burglary and false imprisonment. He was paroled on those convictions in 1985.
White was then convicted of misdemeanor drug use in 1994 and 1996. However, later in 1996 White was sent back to state prison by the Del Norte County Superior Court for criminal threats. He was paroled on that conviction in 1997.
In 1999, White was returned to state prison for two new and separate robberies – one he committed in Alameda County and another in Humboldt County. He was paroled on those cases in 2012. White was on state parole supervision when he was arrested on the current crimes by the Ukiah Police Department.
Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster personally handled the local prosecution of White from the beginning.
“Some individuals are too dangerous to be allowed to live amongst us,” said Eyster. “My goal in prosecuting Mr. White was to achieve a final result that promises the community that Mr. White will never again be given the freedom to pull a knife on, threaten, and victimize people in Mendocino County. In light of the sentence imposed by the court today, that goal has been achieved.”
It is noted by courthouse historians that White’s sentence of 98 years to life is the second longest Three Strikes sentence imposed on any defendant in Mendocino County since voters approved Proposition 184 (the original Three Strikes law) in 1994.
The longest Three Strikes sentence earned by a defendant in Mendocino County – 105 years to life – was imposed on William Newport in 1996 by then-Superior Court Judge James King.
Newport was the so-called Mendocino arsonist who terrorized the village of Mendocino by setting fire to multiple buildings and other property.
Eyster, a Deputy District Attorney at the time, also successfully prosecuted Newport, a case in which the defense attempted an unsuccessful insanity defense.
A listing of all defendants from Mendocino County currently serving life sentences can be accessed through the District Attorney’s Web site at www.co.mendocino.ca.us/da/liferInventory.htm .