Two Paradise men sentenced to state prison in mugging of Camp Fire victim

OROVILLE >> Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey announced Thursday afternoon that two Paradise men have been transferred to state prison after a Butte County Superior Court judge sentenced them to prison for the seconddegree robbery of a Camp Fire victim’s insurance settlement.

The two men Nicholas Fitzgerald, 27, and Jesse McLaughlin, 33, had been sentenced last month to a three and five-year term respectively after they conspired to commit a robbery of Fitzgerald’s girlfriend.

Ramsey said that in April, officers with the Chico Police Department responded to a robbery report at the Chico Marketplace, where Fitzgerald’s girlfriend had been shopping with him.

Fitzgerald, who had just begun dating the woman, according to Ramsey, insisted that he and the victim walk out the north door of the mall and walk to nearby Kohl’s.

Ramsey said as they were walking across the parking lot a masked adult male walked up to the couple and punched the woman in the face, knocking her unconscious and taking her purse.

The assailant drove off in a car with her purse that contained $60,000 in cash and credit cards, proceeds from her Camp Fire settlement that she had just cashed that afternoon, Ramsey said.

The woman reportedly told police right after the robbery that she believed her boyfriend was involved in the crime because he was on his phone prior to the robbery and refused to let her see it. Witnesses also said that he appeared to walk alongside the “robber” as he went to his getaway vehicle.

Ramsey said police were able to obtain text messages between the two men and determined that Fitzgerald had contacted McLaughlin the day of the robbery and set up a plan to rob the victim.

McLaughlin was sentenced to five years in state prison as he was on parole out of Tehama County for convictions of an illegal gun, methamphetamine and stolen property charges. Fitzgerald was sentenced to three years in prison.

The court awarded the victim restitution against both men for the loss of her insurance settlement.