A federal judge today sentenced two woman to federal prison for a pair of unrelated bank robberies – one of them a failed attempt to rob a bank at a drive-in window after arriving in a hired limousine.

United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the sentences, which Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi imposed today during separate hearings in U.S. District Court, Providence. Judge Lisi sentenced Evonne D. Maurice, 22, of Westbrook, Connecticut, to 37 months, and Dawn Walker, 28, to 77 months.

In May, Maurice pleaded guilty to attempting to rob a teller at a Citizens Bank branch on Garden City Drive, Cranston, in December 2005. At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew J. Reich said the government could prove that Walker had hired a limousine in Connecticut to drive her to Green Airport. At some point, she told the drive that she had missed her flight, and asked him to take her to a bank so she could withdraw cash with which to pay him.

At the drive-up window of the bank, Maurice got out of the back seat of the limousine and passed a threatening note through the deposit drawer, demanding money and claiming there were bombs in the bank. The teller triggered an alarm, Maurice got back into the limousine without any money, and the unsuspecting chauffeur drove away. Maurice was arrested in May 2006 in Tampa, Florida.

Walker pleaded guilty in April to robbing a teller at a Bank of America branch on Atwells Avenue in Providence. At Walker’s plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie S. Browne said the government could prove that, on December 27, 2006, Walker went into the bank and passed a note to a teller, claiming she had a gun and demanding money. The teller gave her $4,438, and she fled.

Providence Police detectives lifted from the robbery note a fingerprint that they matched to Walker, and detectives familiar with Walker from prior contacts identified her from bank surveillance photos. Police arrested her on December 30.

Walker had numerous prior convictions for a variety of offenses, and was classified at the highest level of criminal history under federal sentencing guidelines.

Cranston and Tampa police, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigated the attempted bank robbery by Maurice. Providence Police and the FBI investigated the Walker bank robbery. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adi Goldstein represented the government at the Maurice sentencing today.