Man Sentenced for Five Bank Robberies

BUFFALO, NY—Rashawn Maurice Smith, 31, of Buffalo, New York and Jamestown, New York, who pled guilty to 5 Bank Robberies on January 8, 2009, was sentenced to a 10 year term of imprisonment on each count by U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, Acting U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter of the Western District of New York announced today. The sentences will run concurrently.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti, who handled the cases, stated that the defendant admitted that he robbed seven banks in the Jamestown, Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania areas between April 2007 and July 2007. Five of the bank robberies occurred over a two-week period in July 2007. Smith carried a knife during one of the robberies and a pellet gun during another. No one was injured during any of the robberies. The defendant stole approximately $39,000 from all the robberies and was ordered by Judge Skretny to make restitution to the banks.

The conviction was the culmination of a joint investigation on the part of the Jamestown, New York Police Department under the direction of Chief Rexford Rater; the Erie, Pennsylvania Police Department under the direction of Chief Stephen Franklin; the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Police Department under the direction of Chief Nathan Harper and Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Buffalo, under the direction of Laurie Bennett, Special Agent In Charge.