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Press Release

Three Albany Men Charged in Connection with Armed Bank Robbery

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Three Albany men were charged today in connection with an armed robbery yesterday of an M&T Bank branch in the Town of North Greenbush, in which a bank employee was shot.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith; James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Keith M. Corlett, Acting Superintendent of the New York State Police; Chief David Keevern of the Town of North Greenbush Police Department; Chief Eric Hawkins of the Albany Police Department; and Albany County Sheriff Craig D. Apple.

The complaint charges Christopher J. Cohn and Ulysses J. Walls, both age 25, with armed bank robbery.  The complaint also charges Quardel E. Valentine, age 28, with conspiracy to commit bank robbery. 

The defendants were quickly arrested yesterday following the robbery and appeared today before United States Magistrate Judge Christian F. Hummel, who ordered them detained pending detention hearings scheduled for Friday, March 1.    

The charges in the complaint are merely accusations.  The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The complaint alleges that Cohn and Walls entered an M&T Bank in North Greenbush yesterday morning, each wearing a ski mask and brandishing a gun.  In the course of the robbery, Cohn fired multiple shots, including one that grazed an employee of the bank.  Valentine drove Cohn and Walls to the bank, waited during the robbery, and helped them flee following the robbery.  

The charges filed against Cohn and Walls carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to 5 years.  The charge filed against Valentine carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

This case is being investigated by the FBI, the New York State Police, the Town of North Greenbush Police Department, the Albany Police Department, and the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, with the assistance of the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wayne A. Myers and Joshua R. Rosenthal.

Updated February 27, 2019

Topic
Violent Crime