ROBBERY SUSPECTS FACE FEDERAL CASE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

MOJAVE - Federal prosecutors have taken over the case against three men and two women arrested after a Mojave bank robbery, 40-mile chase and search.

The five defendants face stiffer prison sentences, if convicted, than if they had been prosecuted at the state level, officials said.

``The feds have taken jurisdiction of it,'' said Kern County Deputy District Attorney Joseph DeSilva, who has dismissed state charges. ``The federal government can, based on sentencing standards, obtain much longer sentences than we could have in the state (system).''

The defendants are Megan Manning, 18, of Los Angeles; Jonathan Ward, 23, of Los Angeles; Maliki Foust, 23, of Compton; Kejuan Moore, 23, of Hawthorne; and Francesca Rivera, 18, of Los Angeles.

The five have pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges of armed bank robbery and use of a firearm during a crime of violence, FBI officials said. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday.

The maximum penalty for conviction on the bank-robbery charges would be 25 years, officials said.

The three men are suspected of being the robbers who took more than $51,000 shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 from the Mojave Desert Bank in the 15570 block of K Street, where customers and employees were ordered to lie on the floor.

``The two females stayed out as getaway drivers,'' DeSilva said. ``The three males entered the bank, ordered all customers to the floor and confronted the tellers. They forced two tellers into the vault and made the tellers give them money. They confronted two tellers at their stations and made those tellers give them money.

``The bank has been robbed several times in recent years, and all (suspects) have been people from south of Kern County,'' DeSilva said. ``I guess they think we are a bunch of yokels up here and (they) will never get caught.''

Two male suspects were arrested hiding in the attic of an abandoned duplex in Lancaster, authorities said, and the women were stopped in a car on the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita.

Moore was arrested later in Los Angeles, officials said.

Some of the money was dropped by the fleeing robbers before they climbed into a white Toyota Camry that sped off.

The robbers parked the Camry a few blocks away, where a witness saw them get into a silver sport utility vehicle driven by a woman with a female passenger.

A Kern County Sheriff's Department deputy spotted the Chevrolet Tahoe as it entered the Antelope Valley Freeway, and California Highway Patrol officers chased it.

At one point, the female driver pulled over and got out of the SUV, but she refused to obey a CHP officer's order to walk backward toward him, Kern County sheriff's deputies said.

The CHP officer said he saw a man raise his head from the back of the SUV, and the woman re-entered the vehicle and drove off again.

CHP officers followed until the SUV left the freeway in Lancaster, where Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies took over. The pursuit went to Avenue H-8 near Date Avenue, where the three men jumped out and ran. Deputies said they were chasing the three men on foot when the SUV drove off again.

CHP officers spotted the SUV on the Antelope Valley Freeway near Santa Clarita and took both women into custody. Money was found inside the vehicle, officials said.

In Lancaster, deputies searching for the three men called in reinforcements - including Special Enforcement Bureau members, police dogs and a helicopter - and surrounded the neighborhood.

Authorities set up roadblocks closing off the neighborhood, and they ordered people to stay inside their homes.

Around noon, two men were found hiding inside the attic.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com