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Press Release

Illinois Man Pleads Guilty to Two Bank Robberies

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – An Illinois man pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 in connection with a Massachusetts bank robbery and an Illinois bank robbery.

Eugene Davis, 54, of Chicago, Ill., pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin scheduled sentencing for Sept. 9, 2021.

In July 2019, Davis was indicted on the Massachusetts bank robbery. In March 2021, Davis was charged in the Northern District of Illinois with an unrelated bank robbery, and the case was recently transferred to this District for plea and sentencing purposes.

According to the charging documents, Davis robbed a branch of the East Boston Savings Bank in South Boston on June 3, 2019. Davis walked into the bank pulling a suitcase and handed a handwritten demand note to the teller. The note said that there was a bomb in the bag, that everyone was going to die and to please put all the money into Davis’s hand. The teller took $6,055 cash out of the teller drawer and gave it to Davis who placed it in his shirt and walked out of the bank. Davis was apprehended later that day and ultimately confessed to committing the bank robbery and to writing the note used in the bank robbery.

On May 22, 2019, Davis robbed a Chase Bank in Chicago, Ill. Davis entered the bank pulling a wheeled suitcase and handed the teller a demand note. The note stated that Davis had a bomb, demanded money and threatened that no dye packs be included or they would all die. The teller provided approximately $3,460 in cash to Davis who then departed the bank with the money.

The charging statute provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the United States Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Boston Field Division; Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Chicago Field Division; Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; and Boston Police Acting Commissioner Gregory Long made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of Mendell’s Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.

Updated April 30, 2021

Topic
Violent Crime