GLENDALE : Bogus ‘Cowboy’ Gets 92-Month Sentence
Warren Matthew Sims, the man whom Glendale police mistakenly believed to be the “Cowboy Bandit,” has been sentenced to 92 months in federal prison, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
Sims, 37, pleaded guilty to two counts of armed robbery stemming from his arrest in connection with three bank heists in the Glendale area in September.
Sims was originally charged with three robberies, but one charge was dropped in an agreement with prosecutors, said Nancy Spiegel, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Sims, a Los Angeles roofer, twice robbed a Great Western Bank branch on north Glendale Avenue and robbed a Bank of America branch on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock.
He admitted to robbing the banks to support his drug and alcohol addiction.
Police confused Sims with the “Cowboy Bandit”--a Stetson-wearing robber who went on a crime spree in late summer--because the men used similar tactics, police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian said.
The actual ‘Cowboy Bandit’ was also tied to three local bank robberies in August and September, Keuroghelian said.
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