Wheelchair user, 71, admits to robbing San Deigo bank

From 10 TV News in San Diego:

SAN DIEGO -- A 71-year-old wheelchair user with a history of trying to hold up banks pleaded guilty August 6 to using a BB gun to rob a downtown bank of just over $2,000.

Peter Barry Lawrence (pictured) faces 35 years to life in prison when he returns to court on Sept. 24.

In his plea August 6, Lawrence admitted a deadly weapon allegation and two prior bank robbery convictions from 1998 and 1999, said Deputy District Attorney Amy Maund.

At his arraignment last week, prosecutor Makenzie Harvey told a judge that Lawrence used a demand note and a replica 9 mm handgun to rob the Chase bank branch in the 700 block of Broadway on July 26.

The teller who was handed the note followed the suspect to the door and pointed him out to a pair of security guards, and he was arrested about four blocks away, near where he lived, the prosecutor said.

Lawrence was carrying the stolen money and a BB pistol when he was detained, police said.

According to federal court records, Lawrence called the FBI and surrendered three months after his previous bank robbery in Hillcrest.

He tried to rob a Wells Fargo bank in City Heights just three days after getting out of prison and was arrested in a nearby parking lot, the federal records indicated.