Chiefs superfan will get 17.5 years for robberies

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs superfan Xaviar Babudar used to be sentenced to 17½ years in reformatory without parole and three years of supervised release Thursday for committing a string of armed bank robberies across the USA.

Babudar, widely identified as ChiefsAholic, entered a plea deal in February through which he admitted to stealing more than $800,000 in 11 robberies across seven states and laundering the proceeds through casinos. He pleaded responsible to one rely of bank robbery, one rely of cash laundering and one rely of transporting stolen property across stammer lines.

Dressed head to toe in a gray wolf suit, Babudar, 30, modified into a staple at Chiefs games for years and used to be adored by followers at Arrowhead Stadium and on social media, the set up he crafted a persona of a hardworking, generous bachelor.

In court documents filed final week, prosecutors talked about Babudar used to be ready to lend a hand Chiefs games and grow the ChiefsAholic persona thanks to his 16-month robbery spree, which began in March 2022.

Carrying a yellow reformatory jumpsuit and handcuffs all through his sentencing on the District Court docket for the Western District of Missouri, Babudar apologized to his victims; to Kansas Metropolis, which he known as his home; and to his mom and brother. As he left the court, he blew them a kiss.

Babudar’s attorney, Matthew Merryman, talked about Babudar’s robberies were pushed by gambling dependancy. Patrick Daly, senior litigation counsel on the U.S. Attorney’s Do of job, disagreed.

“It’s now not an dependancy to gambling. It’s now not an dependancy to the Chiefs,” he talked about. “It’s an dependancy to repute.”

Prosecutors cited an announcement from one robbery sufferer, who wrote, “[M]y crew didn’t must be held at gunpoint twice so a man in a wolf suit might per chance per chance slouch back and forth the nation observing football and inserting extravagant bets.”

Per the court documents, Babudar steered a Nashville credit union employee that he would “blow your brains out” and that within the event that they gave him a dye pack he would “near aid and save a bullet on your head.”

In a separate submitting, Merryman wrote that Babudar is remorseful, hopes to put collectively in mechanical trades and wants to lend a hand others combating gambling dependancy.

An ESPN investigation stumbled on that Babudar had a shy upbringing and a history of apt points and that principal of what he posted about himself on social media used to be unfaithful. Merryman wrote in a submitting that Babudar experienced childhood trauma and chronic homelessness.

Babudar’s secret lifestyles unraveled on Dec. 16, 2022, when Bixby, Oklahoma, police arrested him fleeing an armed robbery on the Tulsa Teachers Credit Union. He used to be launched on bond in February 2023 and, a month later — after receiving $100,000 in winnings from two bets on the Chiefs — he decrease off his GPS video display and escaped.

Babudar refrained from authorities for virtually four months and robbed banks in Sparks, Nevada, and El Dorado Hills, California, whereas on the flee. On July 7, 2023, he used to be arrested in Lincoln, California.

In a court submitting, Merryman argued that Babudar would per chance even unbiased unruffled fetch a 10-year sentence to enable him time to lovely his wrongs.

“Attributable to his quasi-movie neatly-known person set up, Xaviar is in a particular dwelling to potentially repay the financial losses created by his actions,” Merryman wrote.

Babudar is required to pay $532,455 in restitution and forfeit property obtained as a outcomes of his crimes, including an autographed describe of quarterback Patrick Mahomes that he bought at a charity auction and has been recovered by the Kansas Metropolis FBI. In April, a settle ordered Babudar to pay $10.8 million to the Bixby teller he threatened with a gun.

Babudar, who has been looking forward to sentencing at Leavenworth federal reformatory in Kansas, requested to be housed on the Greenville federal reformatory in Illinois.