Bay Area man gets probation for robbing San Francisco banks
SAN FRANCISCO — A Bay Area man who allegedly robbed two banks within a week was sentenced to probation for three years, court records show.
Mark David Anderson, 59, pleaded guilty last December to one count of bank robbery, a federal offense. He was sentenced in mid-May by U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, court records show.
Anderson’s attorney wrote in court papers that he has a mental illness stemming from a traumatic brain injury after being struck in the head with a pipe during a robbery in New York City. The lawyer wrote that Anderson was originally charged by the San Francisco District Attorney and was undergoing a mental health diversion program that was upended when federal prosecutors took over the case.
Federal prosecutors charged Anderson in April 2021 with robbing two banks. In November 2020, Anderson allegedly placed a steak knife on the counter of a Wells Fargo in San Francisco before departing with $605, according to the criminal complaint. Two days later, Anderson allegedly stole roughly $300 in a robbery of the East West Bank branch on Kearney Street.
When police identified Anderson as a suspect and came to arrest him at the Golden Eagle Hotel, he was being loaded into an ambulance that very moment, for a medical emergency. Officers noted he was wearing the same shirt then as he’d worn during one of the robberies, according to prosecutors.
Anderson spent roughly two weeks in federal custody before being released in April 2021.