Salinas man sentenced for robbing two women at gunpoint

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) A Salinas man was sentenced to 19 years and four months in prison for robbing two women at gunpoint.

33-year-old Adrien Olivas was found guilty of two counts of robbery and two enhancements for personal use of a firearm involving two victims in October.

In February 2017, Olivas contacted a female aquaintance and invited her to visit Salinas. She drove to Salinas with a friend, and both had lunch with Olivas. After that, he invited them to his home and took them to an apartment complex. When they got there, he parked his car and asked his acquaintance to drive with him to the store while the other woman waited in the car.

He started driving toward Reservation and Panziera Road off Highway 68 and the woman fell asleep in his car. When she woke up, Olivas was pointing a gun at her chest demanding her purse and cash. She gave him $2,500 in cash, her phone, her passport and her wallet that contained multiple credit cards and IDs. After robbing her, Olivas pushed the woman out of the moving car. She was injured in the fall, and Olivas got away.

Olivas drove back to where the other woman was and asked her to follow him to a nearby apartment complex, saying her friend was waiting inside one of the apartments. He had her go up the stairs while pointing a gun at her and demanding her wallet. She gave him the wallet that contained cash and credit cards.

After the robberies, Olivas used a Square merchant account to run the stolen credit cards in various amounts.

Olivas was arrested several months after the robbery.

Both robberies count as violent strikes under California's three strikes law.