Second Alleged Whitpain Tavern Robber Heads to Trial

The second Hazleton man charged in the Nov. 4 robbery of Whitpain Tavern waived his preliminary hearing Monday before District Judge Robert Sobeck and now heads to Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas for trial.
Juan Carlos Garcia, 20, was sent back to Luzerne County prison on an unrelated drug offense, per The Times Herald. Garcia’s bail remains at $1 million.
Garcia’s alleged accomplice in the robbery—Tyrice “Reek” Griffin, 41, of Hazleton—had all charges held against him at a December preliminary hearing before Sobeck.
Griffin and Garcia each face eight counts of felony robbery and other offenses. Griffin faces life in prison, as police said is now a third-strike offender. Each robbery offense carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.
Police said both were the two masked men who allegedly robbed the cash register, tavern safe, and jewelry, cash and cell phones from employees and customers at the tavern shortly before 1:30 a.m., before allegedly stealing a patron's Mustang and fleeing the scene. The duo then crashed the car into a fence at Montgomery County Community College before escaping and eluding police.
Whitpain Township Police chased the stolen red Mustang down DeKalb Pike, until the car went over the curb, up over an embankment and over concrete parking blocks and landed at the college, police said.
The car was found in a small wooded marsh northeast of the college's Art Barn. A black ski mask was found on the ground outside the driver's door, police said.
An investigation revealed that, at some point, Garcia and Griffin allegedly split up, with Garcia getting behind the wheel of a Mazda 626 and Griffin driving the Mustang. Police said the safe was transferred from the Mustang to the Mazda, and the duo allegedly separated.
Police said Griffin allegedly fled the scene of the Montgomery County Community College crash to Philadelphia. Garcia, police said, allegedly fled undetected to North Wales Borough.
Garcia then stopped outside a North Wales home, with the safe, and hid inside the Mazda until he was picked up by two individuals from Hazleton, police said.
The three then picked up Griffin in Philadelphia, police said, before heading to Hazleton.
The Mazda was recovered in North Wales Nov. 4, police said.