Homeless Man Gets Wish: Jail Term : Shelter: His $40 bank holdup gains him the comforts of a cell for six months.

Vernon Lamarr Clark, a 51-year-old homeless and jobless man who robbed a San Diego bank of $40 for the comforts of shelter and food in jail, was sentenced Wednesday to six months behind bars by a federal judge who said being down and out did not excuse a turn to crime.

“Irrespective of one’s motives, the law has been broken and we cannot condone that kind of criminal action, even if it is to seek shelter and food,” U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. said.

Clark, an ironworker who lost his job and then his home when his wife kicked him out, said he robbed a San Diego branch bank on Oct. 25 because he could think of no other way to get help. When he pulled the robbery, he had been living on the streets for about two years, scavenging for food and scrounging for aluminum cans.

Thompson said sentencing Clark, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of bank larceny, presented a dilemma because the law calls not only for punishment but, when appropriate, for compassion.

It was beyond question, Thompson said, that being on the streets without a job was a daunting situation. But robbing a bank was not the way up and out, he said.

Clark freely admitted his crime.

“I was in a state of depression,” he said Wednesday. “I needed help I could not get on the street. I wanted to be incarcerated.”

On Oct. 25, Clark said, he walked into a Union Bank branch, presented a note to a teller, thrust a wet paper sack across the counter and demanded $40 or $50. The note said he had a gun, but he did not, Clark said. After the teller gave him $40, Clark tapped a security guard on the shoulder and told him to call police.

Originally, federal prosecutors charged Clark with bank robbery, a felony that could have led to a maximum 20-year prison term. If convicted, Clark probably would have drawn 46 to 57 months behind bars, said Assistant U.S. Atty. John B. Scherling, the prosecutor.

But because the bank lost less than $100, prosecutors decided it was more just to pursue the lesser charge of bank larceny, Scherling said. In exchange for a guilty plea, Clark agreed to give up his right to appeal any sentence.

The top sentence for bank larceny is one year, Scherling said. Federal sentencing guidelines called for Clark to serve up to six months. Because he already has served nearly two months of his term, he will be freed in April.

“The government recognizes that (Clark) was unemployed and homeless at the time he committed this robbery,” Scherling said. “But that is no excuse for what he did. You can’t rob a bank and have the government take care of you for the rest of your life. You can’t rob a bank and get a job.”

Deputy Public Defender Nancy Kendall asked for leniency. “If any case cried out for giving (someone) a chance and seeing what he can do with it, this is it,” she said.

If the judge would go along with that, said Fritz Umscheid, business manager of Clark’s union, Ironworkers Local 229 in Clairemont Mesa, he could get Clark back to work within weeks.

But Thompson ordered Clark to serve the time behind bars.

“I suppose there are many people on the streets desirous of shelter, food and clothing who do not acquire those things by the commission of crimes,” Thompson said. “We can’t condone the criminal acts of persons because they are in a position where they are on the street.”