Joe Griffith, of Bayfield, pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of a crime of violence in connection with the robbery Jan. 31 of Rocky Mountain High in Durango.
According to the plea deal worked out with the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, he faces a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Authorities say he posed as a customer at the marijuana dispensary, while his son, Logan, armed with a handgun and wearing a hooded sweatshirt and ski mask, tied up his father and two clerks before leaving with $3,000 in cash and a substantial amount of marijuana.
Joe Griffith is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10.
Logan Griffith, 20, 19 at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault on a peace officer and aggravated robbery. He was sentenced last week to six years in the Youthful Offender System, which houses violent youthful offenders between the ages 14 and 17 and young adults who commit felonies at the ages of 18 and 19 and are sentenced before their 21st birthday.
Unlike offenders sentenced to the Department of Corrections, who end up serving only 50 to 75 percent of their prison term, offenders sentenced to the youthful offender system do not receive earned time or good-time credit.
At Logan Griffith’s sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Reid Stewart said the case had been “difficult for the prosecution,” because on reviewing the evidence, Stewart became convinced that the “strange dynamic between father and son” meant that “even though it was the son holding the gun, I feel that the father is more culpable for the crime.”
