Getaway Driver Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Aiding and Abetting Armed Bank Robbery

OAKLAND—Regina Lynn Dean was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison for aiding and abetting armed bank robbery, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced.

Dean, who had no plea agreement with the government, pleaded guilty on May 15, 2013. During the plea hearing, Dean admitted that she was the getaway driver for her co-defendant Gary Casdell Fite, II, who robbed at gunpoint the Mechanics Bank branch on Pinole Valley Boulevard in Pinole, California, on March 1, 2013, taking more than $3,000.

Dean, 37, of Antioch, was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 28, 2013, and was ordered to surrender into federal custody immediately after her sentencing. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton. In addition to her prison term, Dean was also sentenced to a three-year period of supervised release.

Co-defendant Fite, 23, of Oakland, pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement on June 19, 2013, and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 4, 2013.

Brian C. Lewis is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance Legal Assistant Janice Pagsanjan. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.