Kansas City Man Sentenced for Northland Bank Robbery

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dicksinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Missouri man was sentenced in federal court today for robbing the Bank of America.

Rolando Winters, 25, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to five years and 10 months in federal prison without parole.

On November 7, 2012 Winters pleaded guilty to stealing $5,863 from the Bank of America at 661 N.W. 55th Terrace, Kansas City, Missouri. Co-defendants Edward L. Green, 24, and Robert Lowe, 27, both of Kansas City, have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

Winters and Lowe entered the bank on July 19, 2012 in order to rob it, while Green, the getaway car driver, positioned the vehicle to pick them up after the robbery. Upon entering the bank, Winters announced, “This is a robbery,” and demanded money from a teller. Winters told the teller that her life depended on it and to move quicker. Winters kept his hand in his waistband and the teller feared that he might have a gun. Lowe took money from another teller while Winters took money from the first teller. Lowe and Winters then fled from the bank.

According to court documents, law enforcement officers had been conducting surveillance on Green, Lowe, and Winters as the men were apparently casing several banks in North Kansas City, Missouri and in Kansas City-North. When Lowe and Winters ran out of the bank, law enforcement officers ordered them to stop. Green was arrested without incident, but Lowe and Winters continued to run around the apartment complex. They ran into an undercover law enforcement truck around the corner of a building and were taken into custody. Winters was transported to North Kansas City Hospital for treatment of injuries he received from running into the vehicle.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Clark. It was investigated by the FBI.