West New York Man Sentenced to 210 Months in Prison for Armed Bank Robbery

TRENTON, NJ—A West New York, New Jersey man was sentenced today to 210 months in prison for robbing a TD Bank branch in Weehawken, New Jersey, on May 31, 2011, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Maximo Castro, a/k/a “Carl Worthington,” 32, was convicted by a federal jury on December 22, 2011, of both counts of the indictment on which he was tried—armed bank robbery and possession of a firearm in furtherance of the bank robbery. He was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:

Castro entered the TD Bank branch wearing a hat and sunglasses and carrying a gold-plated handgun. He then announced that he was robbing the bank, threw a black bag at the tellers, and demanded that they hand over the bank’s money. Castro also stole money from bank customers and ordered everyone in the bank to the ground before leaving the bank.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Wolfson sentenced Castro to five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $4,843.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents and task force officers of the FBI’s Newark Violent Crime Squad, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez, as well as officers from the Weehawken Township Police Department, for the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Fabiana Pierre-Louis of the Criminal Division in Trenton and Senior Litigation Counsel Serina Vash of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.