California Felon Out on ‘Compassionate Release’ Is Going Straight Back to Prison… For the Same Crime

It turns out, “compassionate release” couldn’t keep him from a life of crime.

A California man released more than 20 years early from a sentence for a 1995 bank robbery conviction was convicted Thursday of robbing a Brinks armored car driver in August of last year, according to the New York Post.

At the time, Markham David Bond, 61,  had  been on “supervised” release for just more than a year.

“After being given a second chance in life, this defendant sadly chose a path of violent crime,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement posted to social media.

Markham David Bond, 61, of Inglewood, was found guilty by a jury of robbing a Brinks courier at gunpoint in a bank parking lot near LAX in August 2023. Bond’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 11, 2025. pic.twitter.com/t5wTq0brYu

— US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) December 16, 2024

As bad as bank robbery is, “compassionate” release in this case could have gotten somebody killed.

According to KNBC-TV, Bond approached a Brinks driver outside a Chase Bank in August 2023 while armed with a handgun and demanded money.

After the panicked driver dropped a duffel bag full of cash, Bond made off with $145,000, KNBC reported.

He was arrested at his home on Nov. 22, 2023, according to the station.

According to a Justice Department news release, Bond had been granted “compassionate release” from a 46-year and 10-month prison sentence in January 2022.

That meant he’d served 26 years of what should have, in actuarial terms, been effectively a life term.

And that meant he was free to menace the life of a fellow human being to steal a bank’s money.

The Post noted that federal sentencing guidelines allow for compassionate release in the case of “extraordinary and compelling reason” — such as ill health for the prisoner or significant family circumstances.

It wasn’t clear what grounds justified the release of a career criminal whose record, according to the Justice Department news release, includes multiple felony convictions for crimes like armed robbery, bank robbery “use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin.”

It didn’t take into sufficient account the potential threat to victims like a Brinks driver confronted by a man with a handgun — or of innocent bystanders who might be killed or wounded if an armed robbery turns into an active shooting situation.

(That’s been known to happen now and again.)

It didn’t take into sufficient account the idea that Bond might go out and commit what was essentially the same crime as the one he was sentenced for.

No one expects prison officials to be mind readers or able to predict the future, but it’s fairly evident that criminals are people who commit crimes if they’re free to do it. And no amount of “compassion” is likely to change that.

According to the Justice Department, Bond is scheduled for a sentencing hearing in July where he “will face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.”

Maybe this time it will stick.

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