Woman diagnosed with mental illness sentenced to 18 months for Pittsburgh bank robbery

On June 26, 2020, Gloria Anderson, who had a long history of mental illness, made her way to Point State Park and told a police officer on bike patrol she was going to rob a bank.

She also said she was going to kill herself.

Officers took the 36-year-old homeless woman to UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital in Oakland, where she’d been treated before, including just a month earlier.

At Western Psych, Anderson again said she was going to rob a bank.

But, according to a filing in her court case, she did not meet the criteria for involuntary hospitalization. Anderson left.

Wearing a floral dress and orange socks — because she’d given her shoes to the hospital thinking she’d be admitted — Anderson walked to a nearby Dollar Bank on Fifth Avenue.

She walked in about 4:30 p.m. with no bag, no weapon and no disguise, and handed a teller a note that read: “Gimmie $10,000 or I will shoot.”

Bank employees handed her the money, and she was immediately arrested by Pittsburgh police.

On Thursday, Anderson, who pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery in February, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon.

Based on her mental illness and lack of a significant criminal history, Anderson was ordered to serve 18 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

The sentence fell below the advisory guideline range of 37 to 46 months, Bissoon said, because of Anderson’s mental illness.

Assistant Public Defender Sarah Levin played video during the hearing showing her client during her interview with Pittsburgh police immediately after the robbery.

In the video, Anderson was cooperative and polite with the detective.

But she also argued with voices in her head, Levin said.

“‘Oh, I’m talking to the voices,’” she told the investigator.

In explaining the video, Levin told the judge that Anderson was arguing with a voice she called TJ.

“The person she’s mad at is herself,” the attorney said. “It’s mean. It’s upsetting. It’s name-calling all directed to Ms. Anderson.

“The person she thinks doesn’t deserve to live is her. The harm is all directed internally.”

Anderson has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, she told the court.

“Living with this illness can be very difficult, and it causes behavior I would normally not participate in,” she said.

At the time of the crime, Anderson said she was experiencing psychosis and felt suicidal.

“It was not my intent to hurt anyone at the bank.”

In fact, as the manager went to get the money she demanded, Anderson sat in the bank’s greeter’s chair and waited, her attorney said.

“I was not thinking thoroughly,” Anderson told Bissoon.

Since her arrest and incarceration, Anderson, who said she has been chronically homeless, said she is taking new medication that is helping her.

“I need my medication, treatment and groups to keep me on track,” she said. “I would like to be a functional member of society.”

Anderson had at least twice before, been to Western Psych, including in May 2020 when “She reported ‘voices constantly talking’ that worsened over the past few weeks,” Levin said in her sentencing memorandum.

Anderson had a difficult childhood and was raised by her grandparents in deplorable conditions, according to the prosecution’s filing.

They struggled to care for her, and she began using alcohol and marijuana by age 12.

She dropped out of school in tenth grade, although she did earn her GED.

Anderson has been involved in the criminal justice system since age 18 and has convictions for disorderly conduct, reckless burning for setting a fire in her apartment, terroristic threats and fleeing and eluding.

However, Levin told the court that Anderson has always done well on probation.

“Supervision is what’s necessary to protect the public,” Levin said.