Man Who Robbed Wells Fargo Bank at Gunpoint Sentenced to More Than 15 Years in Prison

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A San Francisco man who robbed a Wells Fargo bank of $18,696 at gunpoint in January has been sentenced in federal court in the city to 15 years and eight months in prison.

Leonard Heath, 50, was given the prison term on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who also ordered him to pay $18,696 in restitution.

Heath pleaded guilty before Alsup on July 12 to one count of armed bank robbery of a Wells Fargo branch on Irving Street in the Inner Sunset District of San Francisco on January 20, 2016. Prosecutors said in court filings that Heath entered the bank during the lunch hour, stuck a pistol in the back of a bank employee who
greeted him and directed that employee to a teller counter. Heath then threatened at least three more employees with the gun and stole $11,196 from two different teller counters. He also stole $7,500 that a customer had placed on a counter for deposit.

Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing brief that Heath intimidated the employees and caused fear and apprehension "by repeatedly and aggressively demanding more money and threatening to shoot them."

At the time of the robbery, Heath was completing a federal sentence for a 2004 bank robbery in Ohio and was living in a halfway house in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. FBI agent Adrienne Sparrow said in a Jan. 22 criminal complaint affidavit that Heath was identified when a staff member of the halfway house
was shown a bank surveillance photo of the suspect. Heath has been in custody since his arrest by FBI agents on Jan. 22.

Heath had another previous bank robbery conviction in 1993. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on the 15-year, eight-month sentence in the plea bargain.

By Bay City News

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