Pasadena Bank Robber Sentenced To Prison

LOS ANGELES, CA — A robber dubbed the "Luger Bandit" was sentenced Monday to 14 years behind bars for armed bank heists in three Southern California counties.

Ramsin Jonathan Malek, 35, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson to pay $85,000 in restitution and serve five years of supervised release following his federal prison term.

"This crime was very serious," the judge said. "It affected people's lives and could have resulted in even a greater calamity."

Malek pleaded guilty to five armed bank robberies, including stickups in Riverside County at a Chase bank branch in Eastvale on March 12, 2013, a Bank of America branch in Corona on June 4, 2013, and a Wells Fargo location in Corona on Jan. 8, 2014.

The Pasadena man additionally admitted robbing banks in Granada Hills and Chino, in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, respectively, and pleaded guilty to a federal count of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Malek pointed a handgun at bank employees in each robbery and, at some of the heists, warned that he would shoot, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The robberies caused "lasting trauma that victims must live with for the rest of their lives," prosecutors wrote in court papers.

The judge said the heists were carefully planned and unusual in that there was no indication of a "lifetime pattern" of such crimes by the defendant.

"What he did surely showed him to be dangerous," Wilson said, adding that he did not expect Malek to commit further crimes after prison.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock