Politics & Government
Bank Robber Pleads Guilty
Man was accused of robbing bank branches, including one in Pacific Palisades.
By City News Service
A 56-year-old convicted bank robber pleaded guilty today to escaping from federal custody and robbing a Manhattan Beach bank.
Daniel Warren Gaudio, formerly of Desert Springs, was arrested in April in connection with the robbery of the U.S. Bank branch, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A month earlier, Gaudio had escaped from a federal halfway house in Harrisburg, Penn., where he was serving a nine-year sentence for two bank robberies and transporting a stolen pickup truck, prosecutors said.
In exchange for his guilty pleas today, Gaudio will not be prosecuted for the robberies of a Union Bank branch in Santa Monica in March and a Pacific Western Bank branch in Pacific Palisades in April, according to a plea agreement.
In the Manhattan Beach heist on March 29, Gaudio approached a U.S. Bank teller, brandished a BB gun that looked like an actual firearm, and said, "Give me all the $100 bills; don't give me any dye packs; don't give me any bait money,'' according to the plea document, which said Gaudio made off with about $3,880.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero set Jan. 6 for sentencing.
