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Jose Luis Martinez, 32, pointed a long-barreled gun at a teller in the Bank of America on Park Plaza Drive around 5 p.m. Jan. 5, 2017, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
Martinez, who was wearing glasses, an Everlast hoodie and two wool caps, told the teller that he’d “shoot her and other customers if she did not comply,” the U.S. attorney said.
He then fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
A grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark subsequently returned an indictment charging Martinez with armed bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a holdup.
Rather than risk a trial, Martinez pleaded guilty to the charges on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022.
U.S. District Judge John M. Vazquez scheduled sentencing for Jan. 31, 2002. Martinez will remain in federal custody until then.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI with the investigation leading to the guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Garrett Schuman of his General Crimes Unit in Newark.
He also thanked the FBI’s White Plains, NY, office, the NYPD and police in Greenwich, CT, and Port Chester, NY, without explaining their involvement.
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