UPDATE, JULY 12, 4:30 P.M.: The Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) announced the charges brought against alleged “Drifter Bandit” and Perry Farrell stand-in Michael David Marano at today's scheduled arraignment in Santa Ana: four felony counts each of second degree robbery and
second degree commercial burglary, and sentencing enhancements for eight
prior strike convictions for five 1988 robberies, one 2011 robbery, and
two 1988 assaults using a firearm.
Find out the loooooong prison stretch that could earn the 45-year-old Santa Anan after the jump . . .
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If convicted on all counts, Marano faces a maximum sentence of 110 years to life in state prison, according to the OCDA.
He took more than $30,000 from his four most-recent crimes, prosecutors say.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 8, 4:54 P.M.: The Orange County Sheriff's Department announced today's arrest of a man believed to be the “Drifter Bandit” bank robber.
Michael David Marano, 45, of Santa Ana, was taken into
custody after sheriff's deputies stopped his ride in his hometown. He'd been under
surveillance and was followed from his residence.
Marano, who authorities say has
an extensive criminal history dating back to the mid 1980s, is believed to have robbed a Chase Bank in San Juan Capistrano on May 3, a U.S. Bank in Dana Point on May 26, a Farmers and Merchants Bank back in SJC on July 5 and a Citibank in Laguna Niguel the following day.
The “Drifter Bandit,” named because of his drifty look, flashed a handgun during two of the robberies, according to the sheriff's department, which credited its task force with the FBI, the Bank Robbery Apprehension Team or BRAT, with gathering the evidence that led to Marano's arrest.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.