A pensioner pleaded guilty to a robbery in a Chicago suburb. He faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. The prosecution had asked for seven years, and his lawyer for three years.
Unbehaun committed his next crime on February 9, 2013. He entered a bank with a revolver, threatened the teller with the weapon and took a little more than 4 thousand dollars. After that, the man went to the nearest motel, where he began to wait for the police.
Unbehaun voluntarily surrendered to law enforcement. He explained to the police that he had spent most of his adult life behind bars and that he yearned for prison when he was free. The repeat offender was last released in 2011, after serving several years, also for bank robbery.
Unbehaun admitted that he had planned to commit a crime that would have likely landed him in jail. “He was happy to be back home in prison,” one of the officers said.
The Chicago judge who decided Unbehaun’s case faced a dilemma: Sending a criminal to prison would be more of a reward than a punishment. On the other hand, leaving the American free would risk him committing another crime. As the prosecutor who testified in the trial noted, Unbehaun apparently had no desire to lead a law-abiding life outside of prison.
Richard McLees, the defendant’s lawyer, said a man who robbed a bank to go back to prison deserved more leniency than someone who committed a similar crime for money. The lawyer also added that his client suffered from mild dementia.
In a letter to the judge last week, Unbehaun himself stressed that he still wants to go back to prison, but added that he would not like to die in prison.
The American first found himself in not-so-remote places at the age of 23 for driving a stolen car. In addition, his “service record” includes charges of illegal entry into a home, kidnapping, escape from prison, etc.
After Unbehaun was released in 2011, his sister and her husband bought him a trailer in Rock Hill, California. Life on the outside was not to his liking; he spent his days sitting at home, watching TV, and feeling bored. He compared his trailer to a prison cell. Eventually, Unbehaun decided to rob a bank to get back into his familiar surroundings.
