No Breaks for Rossmoor Home Invasion Robbery Suspect

On his 16th try, the man suspected of December’s home-invasion robbery of a 90-year-old Rossmoor woman was able to get his request for a bail reduction heard by a judge today, but that is where his luck ran out.

Tyler James Compton, 23, of Long Beach remains in custody at the Orange County jail, unable to meet his $200,000 bail. He did, however, get a quick trial date for June 7.

Compton had been seeking a bail reduction since his Dec. 9 arrest, but his bail review hearing came and went 15 times only to be continued each time. Compton was arrested in December after an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy recognized him from a sketch artist’s drawing of the robbery suspect.

After the sketch was released, the deputy thought it resembled the suspect in a case in Sunset Beach, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino, adding that the man has a history of narcotics charges. The victim "gave a very good description,'' added Amormino. "Her details were very explicit ... [and] I'm told his photo looks exactly like the drawing (see the sketch and Compton’s mug shot to the right of this article).''

The Rossmoor attack began around 11 a.m. one morning in December, when the woman stepped outside her Weatherby Road home to retrieve a newspaper

"She uses a cane and they came up behind her, put a gun at her throat, took her back inside the house and said, 'Sit down and don't look at me,' " according to her son, who asked to be identified only as Jim.

The robbers tied the woman to a chair, covered her face with a towel and ransacked every room in the house, Amormino said.