Charges Filed Against 'Man in Black' Suspect

The Nobles County Attorney’s Office on Thursday filed aggravated robbery, terroristic threats and theft charges against “Man in Black” suspect Mark Edward Wetsch.

The charges against the 49-year-old Minneapolis resident come in connection with Tuesday’s robbery of the Rolling Hills Bank in Brewster, which is in Nobles County.

Meanwhile, the FBI continues to investigate any possible connections to earlier bank robberies that took place across the Twin Cities—including the . A man who typically wore dark-colored clothing—although he wore a tan jacket at least one of the robberies—hit more than a half-dozen banks over the past few months and possibly more dating back to early 2011.

"There are so many departments looking for this guy, it's only a matter of time," said Wright County Sheriff Joe Hagerty, whose department is one of more than a dozen involved in the hunt for the "Man in Black"

The Nobles County District Court is handling Wetsch’s case for now, but the FBI would charge him in federal court if appropriate, said Kyle Loven, chief division counsel for the FBI’s Minneapolis office.

“If we are able to bring charges federally, we fully intend to do so,” Loven said. “But that is something in the review side of the house.”

Wetsch made his first appearance in Nobles County District Court on Thursday, and bail was set at $300,000.

He was arrested after a witness observed a silver SUV leaving the scene of the Brewster robbery, Noble County Chief Deputy Chris Heinrichs wrote in the charging documents. St. Peter Police Detective Travis Sandland recalled that a silver SUV was possibly connected to a robbery in that community and went out to intercept the vehicle as it traveled between Brewster and St. Peter.

Sandland and another officer encountered Wetsch in a silver Ford Edge. They stopped the vehicle, and Wetsch denied being in Brewster that day. But the officers found the grip of a handgun and a large amount of loose currency and arrested him.

In a subsequent interview, Wetsch told Sandland that he left his Minneapolis home at 7 a.m. with the intention of robbing a bank, using his cell phone to look up banks in small towns, according to court documents. He said he first observed a Heron Lake bank but decided not to rob it because there were too many customers there.

He then went to the Brewster bank, demanded money from the teller and threatened her with a toy gun–he’d colored the orange tip black with a marker.

Wetsch estimated he fled with about $1,500. Investigators found about $3,400 in his vehicle—including 10 $10 “bait bills.” He said he planned to use the money from the robbery to travel to Africa the next day.

Wetsch said he had a bad feeling about the robbery and that he cut up his jacket while he was driving and threw it out of the vehicle.

He told Sandland that his first robbery was the easiest but they became more difficult as they went on. The charging documents do not include details about any of the other robberies.

The penalties for the alleged robbery, defined by Minnesota State Statute, include:

• Up to 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine on the aggravated robbery charge,
• Up to a year and a day in prison and a $3,000 fine on the terroristic threats charge and
• Up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine on the theft charge.

Wetsch is a former nursing director of Sholom Home West in St. Louis Park who was convicted in 2005 of taking $1.4 million from the senior care facility. The invoice scheme occurred between September 1997 and January 2005.