ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A St. Petersburg man who already served federal time for bank robbery now faces two new federal bank robbery counts, accused of hitting a Largo branch and a St. Petersburg branch while hiding his face behind a prosthetic mask of an elderly man.
David Sartin, 40, was charged by criminal complaint, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office said each count carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison. The first holdup happened Aug. 24 in Largo. The second came Sept. 15 in St. Petersburg.
In both cases, investigators say the robber walked up to the teller line, asked for cash and told employees to leave out dye packs. For the Largo job, he is accused of riding a bicycle to and from the bank, then picking up a car he had left nearby.
Searches of his home and a storage unit turned up items investigators tied to the robberies: a fake handgun, clothing like the outfits seen on camera, and the mask with gray facial hair.
The FBI, the Largo Police Department and the St. Petersburg Police Department worked the case. At the time of the new robberies, Sartin was on supervised release after a 2018 federal conviction for five bank robberies in Texas in 2016, and he had an earlier 2008 federal conviction for attempted bank robbery.
Investigators also say a home security camera recorded a man resembling Sartin unloading a bicycle from his car and wheeling it toward the house. A day later, agents watched him paint the white roof of that car black, according to court records described by federal prosecutors.
A second residence where he sometimes stayed held another prosthetic mask, one that did not match the one used in the holdups, along with a handwritten journal about robbing banks.
A criminal complaint is an accusation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Section: More St. Petersburg FL crime news
Filed under: St. Petersburg FL Crime News