David Lee Martin, the "baby-face robber," may be mentally disturbed, but he wasn't legally insane when he committed a Salt Lake bank heist.
That was the ruling from U.S. District Judge David K. Winder, who has sent Martin to a prison facility for disturbed inmates.Martin was judged mentally disturbed in a psychological profile made by doctors with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons after he was convicted of the June 20, 1989 robbery of First Interstate Bank, Sugar House.
Martin was profiled on the national television program, "America's Most Wanted" shortly before the $1,562 robbery. A taxi driver who had seen the show recognized him during a drive to Salt Lake International Airport.
Winder sentenced Martin to 20 years in a psychological facility run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Springfield, Mo. This maximum sentence is a technicality required for the special treatment available in Springfield, and may be modified if he is successfully treated.
Recently Martin appealed for a new trial in which he would use the defense that he was insane at the time of the robbery. But Winder has denied the motion.
Evidence "clearly showed that the defendant was able to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts when he robbed this bank on June 20, 1989," the judge wrote.