Atlantic City, New Jersey Man Sentenced to 42 Months in Prison for Bank Robbery
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 17, 2011 |
CAMDEN, NJ—Sean Mason was sentenced today to 42 months in federal prison for robbing a PNC Bank in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Mason, 39, of Atlantic City, pleaded guilty October 27, 2010, to an iInformation charging him with one count of bank robbery. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle, who also imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On September 21, 2010, Mason entered the PNC Bank located at 3400 Atlantic Avenue in Atlantic City, walked up to the counter, and handed the teller a note demanding that she give him money. Mason had his left hand pulled back into his sleeve as if he were holding an object.
When the teller spoke to her co-worker in Spanish, Mason told the teller, “You have 30 seconds and I have a gun.” Mason left the bank after the teller gave him approximately $1,610 from her cash drawer. He then took a taxi to a Somers Point, New Jersey shopping plaza where he bought a razor, new clothes, and a cell phone—then shaved his beard and mustache in a bathroom. Mason was arrested later that day when he arrived at his father’s house in Northfield, New Jersey. At the time of his arrest, law enforcement officers recovered approximately $1,077.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Simandle ordered Mason to serve three years of supervised release, pay a $2,500 fine, and pay back the additional $533 stolen from the bank in restitution. Mason has been in law enforcement custody since his arrest.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward in Newark; investigators with the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Theodore F.L. Housel; and officers with the Atlantic City Police Department for the investigation leading to today’s sentence.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Richardson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.
Defense counsel: James J. Leonard, Jr., Esq. Atlantic City