State charges against a man known to police as the
”
No Face Bandit
”
that could have landed him in prison for 27 years were dismissed
in favor of a lesser federal sentence.
State charges against a man known to police as the “No Face Bandit” that could have landed him in prison for 27 years were dismissed in favor of a lesser federal sentence.
A federal judge sentenced Peter Klein, 50, of Aromas to 12 years in prison and ordered him to pay $360,418 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney Office. Klein – who admitted to robbing banks of nearly $400,000 – will begin serving his sentence immediately.
Klein pleaded guilty on Jan. 11 to 11 federal counts of armed bank robbery stemming from a year-long crime spree in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, according to prosecutors. The robberies included four Gilroy banks, prosecutors said.
The Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney also charged Klein with 27 felony counts of false imprisonment, robbery and possession of stolen property. Those charges, however, were dismissed in favor of the federal decision, Deputy District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson said.
By pleading guilty to the federal charges, Klein more than halved his potential sentence. His charges in Santa Clara County alone carried a maximum prison sentence of 27 years and four months, according to prosecutors.
Attorneys had been close to reaching a settlement with Klein for months, Hendrickson said. But his assault on another inmate while in custody complicated matters, she said.
Prosecutors initially tacked a felony battery charge onto Klein’s bank robbery charges. However, the felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor when prosecutors determined that the victim’s injuries were not as severe as they originally thought, Hendrickson said. The misdemeanor will add a year of county jail time onto his federal sentence, she said.
The 11 bank robberies will add 11 strikes to Klein’s previously clean record, meaning that Klein could face a life sentence if convicted of another felony after he’s released, prosecutors said.
“What’s unusual is to have someone that starts robbing banks at the age of 47 without any prior criminal history,” Hendrickson said.
Wearing a baseball cap, dark glasses and a stocking concealing the lower portion of his face, Klein robbed a Chase Bank on First Street at gunpoint March 27, 2009, police said. He ordered at least 10 employees and customers to the ground, according to police, who were alerted to the crime by an off-duty San Jose police officer stopped at a red light near the bank. The officer saw customers inside with their hands in the air and believed the situation looked suspicious.
Based on detailed witness accounts, police tracked down Klein, who fled in an SUV, within minutes, prosecutors said.
Klein’s schemes became more and more brazen as they went on, Hendrickson said. Though police believe Klein used a replica gun to pull off his last heist, Hendrickson said it looked so real the victims had no idea it wasn’t.
“They thought they were going to die,” she said when requesting Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon to set Klein’s bail at $5 million soon after his arrest. “There’s at least one teller who won’t go back, she was so terrorized.”
Police emphasized the boldness of Klein’s crimes.
“The more (robberies) he did, the more and more bold he became,” said Sgt. Ken Binder of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Binder described the crimes as “heartless,” citing a robbery where Klein waved his gun in an 89-year-old man’s face.
