A car salesman found it unusual when two Moreno Valley men came in about a year ago wanting to purchase a bright green 2000 Ford Focus. They wanted to make a big cash down payment and finance the rest.

The salesman remembered the men had plenty of cash but no credit history, he later told an investigator.

"It was an odd credit scenario by these two individuals," Eric Spidle, a senior investigator with the Riverside County district attorney's office, testified in Riverside County Superior Court.

The two men, Michael Stanley Sawcow, 60, and John Huey Honore, 66, both of Moreno Valley, were ordered Monday to stand trial on bank robbery charges and attempted murder, based in part on the car's description.

They were arrested after an armed robbery at a Redlands credit union on Sept. 6, according to testimony. Police testified they got the car's description from a woman who wrote down the license number on the palm of her hand.

Police were waiting for the Focus as it headed toward the two men's home off Pigeon Pass Road in Moreno Valley. Sawcow was wounded when he allegedly pointed a handgun at two police officers, who then fired 11 shots at the car.

Honore, who was driving, was not injured as he parked the car in his sister's driveway, two blocks from the men's home.

Police found $18,210 in the car's trunk. A loaded .22-caliber handgun was found next to a rear tire, according to sheriff's Sgt. John Del Valle.

Sawcow is charged with five bank robberies, plus the attempted murder of two sheriff's deputies. Honore is also charged with the attempted murder counts, and the Redlands holdup.

Judge Gordon Burkhart dismissed a third attempted murder count against both defendants because of insufficient evidence. The charge involved a Redlands police officer who was at the Moreno Valley scene along with the two sheriff's deputies. Prosecutor Michael Silverman said it appears Sawcow pointed the gun in the direction of two sheriff's deputies, and not at the Redlands officer.

Both men will be arraigned Feb. 13.

The car and the description of Sawcow, who is a native of Poland and has a noticeable European accent, played a big part in the charges involvingfour other bank robberies, authorities indicated. Those crimes occurred in Banning, Temecula and Murrieta.

The Focus resembled a Ford with a distinctive red, white and blue dealer placard in the rear license-plate holder that was seen leaving a bank robbery in Temecula, last June 19, police testified.

Spidle testified at the pair's preliminary hearing that, after their arrest, he discovered the men purchased the Focus at Riverside's Raceway Ford last Feb. 20.

Sawcow and Honore gave $9,999 in cash for the Focus, and Sawcow filled out a credit application listing his occupation as "retired plumber," Spidle testified. The investigator said any cash payment over $10,000 must be reported to banking authorities.

"There was absolutely no work history on it," Spidle said of the credit application. The balance on the car loan, $7,012, was paid within 30 days by Honore who wrote a check, he said.

After the preliminary hearing, Silverman said that investigators suspect the two men's income came from robbing banks.

Defense attorneys said they will later ask Burkhart to dismiss or reduce the attempted murder charges because Sawcow only pointed the gun in the direction of officers and there was no evidence of intent to kill. His .22-caliber handgun was not fired.

During the court hearing, six and sometimes seven deputies were stationed in the courtroom to watch the men who have spent more than 20 years in prison and consider themselves brothers. They have known one another since their youth.

"They're scared to death of me," a burly Sawcow growled at the start of the hearing as deputies led him to his chair.

Told by a deputy to shut up, Sawcow snapped back, "What are you going to do?"

Marlowe Churchill can be reached by e-mail at mchurchill@pe.com or by phone at (909) 656-3339.