SAN FERNANDO VALLEY : ‘Syringe Bandit’ Gets 16 Years in 8 Robberies
A Northridge man was sentenced Thursday to nearly 16 years in prison after pleading guilty in San Fernando Superior Court to being the so-called “Syringe Bandit” because he threatened to use a syringe purportedly filled with AIDS-tainted blood as a weapon.
Wesley G. Pledger, 35, in a plea agreement with prosecutors, was sentenced on charges of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon--the hypodermic syringe--in eight holdups throughout the San Fernando Valley this year. Two unrelated prior convictions added five years to his sentence because of parole violations.
If Pledger had gone to trial and been convicted on all counts, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 22 years and 4 months. The holdups drew attention because Pledger threatened victims with a syringe that he said was filled with AIDS-tainted blood. Prosecutors did not order tests to determine if the syringe held contaminated blood or whether Pledger has the AIDS virus.
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