Man charged in robbery spree around Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO >> Federal prosecutors in the Bay Area have charged a man with robbing four banks and attempting to rob two more within a two-month period that started in December, court records show.

Aklilu Asefaha, 45, faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of the bank robbery charges. The alleged offenses occurred in Sonoma, San Mateo, Marin, and Alameda counties, according to the criminal complaint.

Asefaha was arrested last month in Berkeley after a police officer found him asleep in his car and realized he was a wanted bank robbery suspect, the news site Berkeleyside reported last month.

The robbery spree allegedly began Dec. 30, when Asefaha allegedly entered a Chase Bank in Novato and claimed to have a gun, telling a teller, “give me all your money or I’ll blow a hole in you!” The teller stalled things out by claiming money couldn’t be accessed until they logged into a computer, and Asefaha ran out o the bank empty handed, prosecutors say.

Asefaha was identified as a suspect after he allegedly got $40,000 by robbing a Bank of America in Belmont. Authorities matched a Ford Fusion to that robbery as well as the incident in Novato and a January robbery in Dublin, then realized that Asefaha had rented the car, according to the criminal complaint.

Authorities also matched surveillance footage of the robber to footage of Asefaha gambling at a Northern California casino, as well as footage of Asefaha driving to Emeryville to dispose of a GPS device the teller handed the robber during the Belmont incident, according to the complaint.

Asefaha is next due in court for a detention hearing Friday. In the meantime he is being detained at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, court records show.