Man Who Wore a Band-Aid to Each Robbery Admits to Robbing 4 Area Banks
23 April – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that John Mark Felder, 35, of Berkeley, pleaded guilty late yesterday to four counts of bank robbery.
In pleading guilty, Mr. Felder admitted that, during a five week period, he robbed four banks in the Bay Area of more than $17,000, the funds of which were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to the plea agreement, from June 9, 2004 to July 12, 2004, Felder robbed the following banks by using force and intimidation of the victim tellers at each bank:
* the Wells Fargo Bank at 5191 Mowry Avenue, Fremont, of $9,647;
* the Citibank at 1800 DeCoto Road, Union City, $4,637;
* the Washington Mutual Bank at 1870 Solano Avenue, Berkeley, of $1,906; and
* the World Savings Bank at 3348 Lakeshore Drive, Oakland, of $814.
During the court hearing at which Mr. Felder pleaded guilty, Felder admitted that, for each bank robbery, he entered the bank, approached a teller, provided a demand note for money to the teller, and left the bank with the money concealed in a bag. In addition, for each of these bank robberies, Felder wore what appeared to be a large band-aid over his nose. As a result, he was dubbed the “Band-Aid Bandit” by the FBI.
Mr. Felder was indicted by a federal grand jury on September 2, 2004. He was charged with five counts of bank robbery and has pleaded guilty to four of those charges pursuant to the plea agreement. According to this agreement, if accepted by the Court, Felder would be sentenced to five years and three months incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release, and be required to pay restitution in the amount of $31,599 for losses of banks that had been robbed. The sentencing of Mr. Felder is scheduled for July 14, 2005, before Judge Martin J. Jenkins in San Francisco.
The prosecution is the result of a three month investigation by Special Agent Todd Dorman of the FBI, with the assistance of the Berkeley, Fremont, Oakland, Union City and Vallejo Police Departments. James Keller is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release and related court filings may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can . Related court documents and information may be found on the U.S. District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on .
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay3@usdoj.gov .
