Former Carson City man known as 'Fedora Bandit' admits to string of bank robberies
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Fri, 01/11/2013 - 2:30pm
The 'Fedora Bandit' who robbed banks in Carson City and South Lake Tahoe among several others, pled guilty Friday to three counts of armed bank robbery, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
David Griffith Osborne, 74, formerly of Carson City, made pleas to three counts of armed bank robbery, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner said. Osborne admitted he had robbed Bank of the West on 2976 North Carson Street, in Carson City. He also admitted to the Feb. 18, 2010 robbery at the Bank of the West, 2160 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe and the March 9, 2010 robbery at Bank of the West in Kings Beach and a March 31, 2010 robbery in Grass Valley.
The case is the product of an investigation by the FBI with the assistance from police departments in Grass Valley, South Lake Tahoe, Gridley, and Paradise; the Sheriff’s Offices in Placer and Sacramento Counties; and the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. It was the collaborative effort and cooperation of the agencies involved in the investigation that ultimately led to Osborne’s identification and the filing of federal charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rodriguez is prosecuting the case.
Osborne pleaded guilty to robbing the following banks:
Bank of the West, 34 East Gridley Road, Gridley, April 26, 2010;
American River Bank, 9750 Business Park Drive, Rancho Cordova, June 3, 2010;
Chase Bank, 6669 Clark Road, Paradise, June 29, 2010.
Osborne also admitted to four other bank robberies and will be required to pay restitution for all seven robberies. The other robberies are:
Bank of the West, 736 Taylorville Road, Grass Valley, December 22, 2009 and March 31, 2010;
Bank of the West, 2160 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, Feb. 18, 2010;
Bank of the West, 200 Bear Street, Kings Beach, March 9, 2010.
In each of his seven robberies, Osborne wore a hat, sunglasses, a fake mustache and goatee, and demanded money while brandishing a firearm. Osborne was identified on surveillance images, and after the June 29, 2010 robbery of the Paradise Bank, his DNA was recovered from an abandoned bicycle that he used as a getaway vehicle. Law enforcement personnel matched the recovered DNA to Osborne. Osborne also confessed to the seven armed robberies and also admitted he had robbed a bank in Nevada, namely of the Bank of the West on 2976 North Carson Street, in Carson City.
Osborne is scheduled to be sentenced on March 29, 2013 by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. Osborne faces up to 25 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for each of the three armed bank robberies. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
