PHOENIX — An 81-year-old man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars for stealing from banks said he robbed a credit union in Tucson months after his release from prison because his monthly $800 Social Security payment wasn't enough to live on, according to court records.
His lawyers say Krebs has reported having symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and a neuropsychologist concluded Krebs wasn't competent to stand trial because he has dementia. In urging a judge to find Krebs competent, prosecutors said Krebs acknowledged to FBI agents that he carried out the robbery in Tucson because"$800 a month in Social Security is not very much to live on these days."
Krebs served more than 30 years in prison for a 1981 bank robbery in Florida and was sentenced to three years in prison a 1966 conviction in Chicago for embezzling $72,000 from a bank where he worked as a teller. He also did another 17 years in Arizona for theft and armed robbery convictions from Arizona dating back to 1980.
He was released from prison in the summer of 2017, about six months before the robbery at Pyramid Federal Credit Union branch in a strip mall on Tucson's northern edge. Krebs, who has been jailed since his arrest 17 months ago, has pleaded not guilty to a bank robbery charge stemming from the Tucson heist.
Brooks was here.