Man gets 6 years for robbing Pittsburgh bank while dressed as woman after halfway house escape

Escapee gets 6 years for Pa. heist dressed in drag

PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh man will spend six years in prison for robbing a bank while dressed as a woman the day after he escaped from a halfway house where he was finishing up a sentence for five bank robberies.

Thirty-two-year-old Christopher Hoffman was sentenced Thursday. Federal prosecutors had sought a much longer sentence, arguing he was a violent career criminal.

Hoffman’s attorney says mental problems partly explain why his client stole $2,800 from the Fifth Third Bank in downtown Pittsburgh on Aug. 29, 2006. Hoffman was wearing a woman’s wig and clothes and carrying a hammer in his purse.

Prosecutors argued for a longer sentence in court papers. They say Hoffman’s personality disorders “obstruct fruitful living but do not excuse asinine behavior.”