San Juan Capistrano : Robber Who Used AIDS Threat Is Sentenced

David Clyde Sweeton, a former salesman from San Juan Capistrano, was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison Monday for robbing a bank of $4,692 after saying he was dying of AIDS and was carrying a knife infected with the virus.

Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real imposed the sentence in Los Angeles on Sweeton, 35, for his April 27 robbery of the First Interstate Bank branch on Tustin Avenue in Orange.

Sweeton, who was later found not to have acquired immune deficiency syndrome, approached a financial services officer at the bank, identified himself as an FBI agent and said he was dying of AIDS and needed $25,000, which would be repaid from insurance proceeds, Assistant U.S. Atty. Carol Gillam said in court papers.

Officials told Sweeton that they could not get that much money, so they gave him $4,692 and he left the bank, Gillam said.

Sweeton pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery in July.

He then went to trial in another case and was convicted of armed robbery involving the taking of a hostage.

But in a surprise move Monday, Real granted a defense motion for acquittal on that count. Gillam said she would appeal.

In the second robbery, Sweeton had been convicted of taking $8,200 from the First Interstate Bank branch at Monarch Bay Plaza in Dana Point on May 3, after telling officials there a similar story about dying of AIDS and having an AIDS-infected knife, Gillam said.

When Sweeton spotted sheriff’s deputies outside, he grabbed an elderly woman and held a 14-inch knife to her back but was talked into surrendering, Gillam said.

He later admitted to both robberies, she said.