Local News in Brief : Man Gets 10 Years in Prison for Crime Spree

A 27-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for a crime spree in Sherman Oaks that culminated in his taking a bank manager hostage.

Mark Daniel McKibben of Woodland, near Sacramento, pleaded guilty Dec. 27 to two charges of assault and one of burglary, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pargament. He will be eligible for parole in five years.

The crimes took place over a span of about an hour Dec. 13, beginning at an office building in the 16000 block of Ventura Boulevard, Pargament said.

In that building, McKibben climbed over a partition in the women’s restroom, exposed himself to a woman, held a knife to her neck and hit her several times in the face, Pargament said. When another woman entered the restroom, McKibben ran out.

His next attack occurred at a house in the 15900 block of Dickens Street, where he asked to use the phone. After a housekeeper refused to let him in and activated a burglar alarm, McKibben entered through an unlocked door. He punched the woman in the face several times and bound her ankles with a T-shirt. The woman, 22, broke free when McKibben ran to silence the alarm, Pargament said.

McKibben then ran into the office of a manager at Union Federal Savings and Loan. He held a knife to her throat and dragged her from her desk. Police arrived within seconds, Pargament said. McKibben released the woman only after officers threatened to shoot him.

McKibben said he was under the influence of illegal amphetamines and blamed his actions on the drug.