Bank robber is sentenced to 33 months in prison

A federal judge has sentenced Ernesto P. Rodolpho, of East Wareham, Massachusetts, to 33 months in federal prison for a bank robbery at a Sovereign Bank branch on Elmwood Avenue in Providence in September.

United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the sentence, which Senior U.S. District Court Judge Ernest C. Torres imposed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Providence.

In January, Rodolpho, 57, pleaded guilty to the robbery. At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney James H. Leavey said that the government could prove that, on September 8, 2006, Rodolpho entered the Sovereign branch at 520 Elmwood Avenue. Speaking in Spanish to a Hispanic teller, Rodolpho said he knew her family and that she should not say or touch anything. He gave her a tan plastic bag into which the teller put $895 and a dye pack.

On September 19, Providence Police officers stopped the defendant on an unrelated matter and recognized him from a bank surveillance photo taken at the time of the robbery. Police arrested him for driving on a suspended license, and noticed red dye on the front passenger seat of his car. Rodolpho later admitted committing the robbery, and the teller identified him from a photo pack.

Providence Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the robbery. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zechariah Chafee represented the government at the sentencing.

Contact: 401-709-5032 Thomas.connell@usdoj.gov

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