A masked armed robber who held up a female clerk at the F Street Bookstore in North Park was sentenced June 3 to 14 years in state prison, and it includes a term for his participation in an earlier bank heist that netted $215,443. Police shot and killed the getaway driver at the adult bookstore.

Probation was denied for Tiano Alexander Durham, 21, by San Diego Superior Court Judge Leo Valentine, Jr., who fined him $2,820. Valentine gave him credit for 465 days already spent in jail. A restitution hearing for any money owed to the clerk, the F Street Bookstore, and three banks will be held at a later date.

Durham, a gang member who lived in the South Bay Terraces area, pleaded guilty to robbing the adult bookstore on April 18, 2007, in which he stole approximately $300. Two San Diego Police officers happened to drive by and noticed a man wearing a stocking mask over his face. He ran out of the book store and they tried to follow him shortly after midnight.

The officers instead found the getaway driver, Maurice Antoine White, 30, of Valencia Park, who was sitting in a green Chevy Cavalier with its engine running on Florida Street. The driver saw police and drove a short distance, and turned on Lincoln Avenue, which is a dead-end.

Officers followed the car and when they both approached it, they saw White holding a gun. They called for him to drop it, but he fired one or two shots, which missed both officers. Both officers shot White and he died at the scene.

The F Street Bookstore clerk told the probation department she was “jumpy” for a long time after the robbery. She said the bandit held a black gun and told her to “get on the floor” twice after ordering her to open the register. A security guard was also ordered to the floor.

The clerk relocated to another store and only worked days because of the memories of the late night hold-up.

Despite pleading guilty to the F Street robbery, Durham told a probation officer he didn’t do it. He was arrested April 26, 2007, after leaving his girlfriend’s apartment before he could get into his 1991 Lexus.

Police used DNA evidence to link Durham to the bookstore hold-up, which included his DNA obtained from his gloves, a cup, a fork, straws, and the gun used in the crime, according to the probation report.

Durham did admit involvement in an April 6, 2007, robbery at a Union Bank at 5121 Waring Rd. in which four masked armed robbers forced bank officials to let them into the vault. The robbers took $215,443, according to court records.

Durham admitted to being the “equipment manager” for others in three bank robberies, for which there have been no arrests. Police linked White to one of the bank robberies in which $10,886 was taken from the San Diego National Bank in Mira Mesa on March 10, 2007. White’s DNA was found on duct tape used at the scene, the probation report says.

After Durham pleaded guilty to the Union Bank robbery, the other two bank heists were dismissed. Until these robberies occurred, Durham had no criminal record.