‘Syringe Bandit’ Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison

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” who 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 earlier this year. Two unrelated prior convictions added five years to his sentence because of parole violations.

If Pledger, who has not been tested for AIDS, had gone to trial and been convicted on all counts, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 22 years and four months.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sera J. Boyadjian said a settlement offer was made because “there is always an inherent risk whenever you take any case to trial. But he pleaded guilty early.”

Pledger’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Thom Tibor, said his client changed his plea because “the risk was too high” to go to trial because of the prior convictions, one of them in 1988 for robbery.

Although the string of robberies drew attention because Pledger threatened victims with a syringe that he said was filled with infected blood, prosecutors never tested the syringe for the virus.

“It was not relevant to proving the case,” said Boyadjian, explaining that the syringe and needle, tainted or not, were enough to constitute a deadly weapon.

Boyadjian said the only situation in which it would be relevant to test a person for acquired immune deficiency syndrome who has been accused of a crime would be in a sexual assault where bodily fluids have been exchanged.

The syringe robberies occurred in March in Canoga Park, Reseda and Northridge, all within two miles of Pledger’s home. Although he threatened to jab victims with the syringe, no one was injured in any of the robberies, police said.

Pledger was arrested at his home on March 21 after witnesses identified him from photographs taken from a surveillance camera during one of the robberies. Police said that Pledger has a history of drug use, which may have been the motive for the robberies, which netted about $250 in cash, cigarettes and candy.