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After less of an hour of deliberation, a Clackamas County Jury found Michael Robert Frais guilty of committing two robberies of Oregon City businesses that occurred within thirty minutes of each other earlier in 2022.
On Dec. 13, 2022 Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Ulanda Watkins sentenced Frais to 140 months in prison without early release or reduction in sentence for the two Oregon City robberies. This is the maximum sentence allowed under Oregon law for these crimes. At the sentencing hearing, Judge Watkins sentenced Frais further consecutive prison time for additional crimes unrelated to the robberies.
Here are the events that led to Frias’ sentence.
Jan. 15, 2022: Frias, wearing a distinctive motorcycle helmet and wielding what he purported to be a firearm, walked up to the drive-through window of Black Rock Coffee Company on South Molalla Avenue in Oregon City.
Frais pointed the object at two young employees, demanding money from the till and telling them that they had sixty seconds to do so. After complying, the employees locked themselves inside a bathroom and called police, not knowing whether Frias had left the scene.
The employees described the purported weapon to responding officers as resembling a “hot glue gun” with black tape covering the outside of it, and one of the employees testified that she believed it was her last sixty seconds to live.
Within minutes of officers appearing on scene at Black Rock Coffee Company, another robbery call came out from employees a nearby Dutch Brothers Coffee, on South Main Street in downtown Oregon City.
Dutch Brothers employees provided a nearly identical description of a suspect, wielding a similarly distinct weapon, walking to the drive through and demanding all of the money from the tills. They also complied, and Frias then fled the scene. Surveillance video from each business established that it was the same suspect.
Feb. 1, 2022: Frias was spotted on South Molalla Avenue, wearing the same helmet and using an angle grinder to attempt to cut into the night deposit box of the Oregonian’s Federal Credit Union.
After being contacted, Frias had turned the angle grinder upon Oregon City Police Department Sgt. Gregory Johnston, swinging the operating tool at Johnston’s neck before being taken into custody by several officers.
Frias was arrested and found in possession of a gun-shaped object consistent with that from the earlier robbery reports.
Further evidence of the robberies was found days later during a search of Frias’ residence in Molalla.
On Dec. 6, the jury found Frias guilty of two counts of Robbery in the Second Degree, two counts of Theft in the Second Degree, and five counts of Menacing. After the jury returned its verdict, Frias pleaded guilty to additional charges of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Attempted Assault on a Public Safety Officer, arising from the Feb. 1 altercation.
At the sentencing hearing on December 13th, Frias received further consecutive prison time for the attack on Johnston.
During that hearing, Frias additionally pleaded guilty of committing a separate Harassment against his son in April, 2021, and was further revoked from probation on two separate felony cases– one for assaulting an intimate partner in the presence of a child in July, 2019, and another in which Frias assaulted one of his other minor children in February, 2018.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorneys Adrienne Chin-Perez and Eriks Berzins.