"Granddad Bandit" gets 25 years for 13 state bank robbery spree
(CBS/AP) RICHMOND, Va. - The "Granddad Bandit" has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for robbing banks in 13 states.
Fifty-three-year-old Michael Francis Mara, nicknamed by the FBI for his graying, balding appearance, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Richmond, Va. In addition to the prison time he must pay more than $83,000 in restitution.
Mara pleaded guilty in February to robbing two Virginia banks. He acknowledged heists from New York to Texas from 2008 until his capture last summer.
Prosecutors called Mara a career criminal who had been committing crimes all over the country since he was 18.
The FBI dubbed Mara the "Granddad Bandit" and plastered bank surveillance photos of him on billboards nationwide last August. He was arrested a week later in Louisiana after a six-hour standoff.