Bendtzen

I. BACKGROUND

On March 2, 2006, Bendtzen entered the Santa Barbara Bank and Trust and handed one of the tellers a note, which read: “This is a robbery. I have a bomb on me, hand over all you have or boom. No exploding money! I have a friend out- side with same trigger. Wait 3 minutes before doing anything else or boom!!” The teller gave Bendtzen $3,475 from her drawer. Bendtzen then placed what appeared to be a bomb on the counter of the bank teller’s window. He pretended to press the detonator. After instructing the teller to wait four minutes before doing anything, Bendtzen fled the bank. The Santa Barbara police responded to the bank’s alarm with a bomb squad, which removed the device and destroyed a clock that looked like a detonator. Bendtzen was readily identified through the bank surveillance photos of the robbery and was arrested shortly thereafter.

Bendtzen was indicted for bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). On September 27, 2006, he entered a guilty plea. The Probation Office recommended a Guideline sen- tence of 92 to 115 months, based on a base offense level of twenty, a two-level upward adjustment for robbing a financial institution, a four-level…