Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Man Sentenced in ATM Killing : Crime: After plea bargain, Wesley Harper, 24, gets 26 years to life for role in 1993 murder outside a Lancaster bank.

Wesley Harper was sentenced to 26 years to life Monday for his role in a 1993 murder near an automatic teller machine outside a Lancaster bank.

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Haig Kehiayan sentenced Harper to 25 years to life for first-degree murder. Kehiayan added an additional year because Harper’s co-defendant was armed with a gun.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Rogers said the sentence was exactly what she was seeking. It comes in the wake of a plea bargain which required Harper to plead guilty to the murder charge and testify against Christopher Arthur Mann, who is accused of having fatally shot Hans Christian Herzog, 44.

Under the counts Harper was facing prior to the plea, he could have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, said Rogers.

Rogers said even with the plea, Harper, 24, will serve 28 years in state prison before he is even considered for parole.

“By the time he gets out, he won’t be much danger to anyone,” she said.

Early in the morning of March 5, 1993, Harper drove a pickup truck in which Mann was a passenger. Prosecutors said the pair were looking for someone to rob at an ATM when they came across Herzog outside a Lancaster Boulevard branch of Bank of America.

According to investigators, Mann fatally shot Herzog with a sawed-off rifle provided to him by Harper, and then stole Herzog’s car.

During the sentencing, Rogers read a statement from Herzog’s widow, Verena, into the record. The statement read in part, “Mr. Harper, one of the saddest facts of all is that, whatever you and Mann so desperately desired and killed for, my beloved husband would have freely given you. For Hans was always ready to help one in need, he was one of the most giving and caring men a person could know.”

Rogers said Harper has already provided a videotaped statement about the incident that will be used against Mann during his trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 24. Harper is also expected to testify at Mann’s trial.

“His testimony will be invaluable,” she said, adding that it will allow the jury to “understand the random and cold-blooded nature of the killing.”

The district attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty for Mann.