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Laque Hunter, 37, was recruited to rob the Ocean First Bank in Collingswood in July 2018 by Anthony L. Livingston, 50, also of Camden.
Livingston helped with a demand note and even drove Hunter to the bank, authorities said. The two then split the proceeds.
Livington had only just been released from federal prison less than two weeks earlier after serving 18 years for robbing eight South Jersey banks in 2000 and 2001.
A day after he was freed, Livingston robbed a PNC Bank in Gloucester Township, federal authorities said.
Ten days later, he recruited a homeless man to rob a PNC branch in Stratford, giving him a note, driving him to the bank and telling him what to do, they said.
Instead, the man told a teller that “he had been sent there to rob the bank and that he did not want to do it,” according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Camden.
He also said the bank “should call the police because the person who had sent him was waiting for him outside,” it says.
Livingston slipped away and recruited Hunter a few hours later.
Livingston was convicted at a trial, then was sentenced last November to 16½ years behind bars, just about all of which he must serve because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
SEE: Serial NJ Bank Robber Who Served 18 Years Headed Back To Fed Pen For At Least 16 More
The same goes for Hunter and his more than 7½-year sentence.
Rather than risk trial, Hunter took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to bank robbery in April 2019. His sentencing was postponed because of his value to federal prosecutors in their case against Livingston.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Renée Marie Bumb sentenced Hunter last week to three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI’s Cherry Hill Field Office, Camden County police, the Camden County prosecutor’s and sheriff’s offices and police from Collingswood, Gloucester Township and Stratford with the investigation leading to the sentencing, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen M. Harberg and Patrick C. Askin of her Camden Office.
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