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Capital Region resident Ulysses Wall, of Rensselaer, pleaded guilty to multiple charges in Albany federal court on Monday, Aug. 21.
According to the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District, Walls and co-defendant Christopher Cohn robbed two banks in Albany and North Greenbush in February 2019.
They first hit an Albany Trustco Bank on Feb. 6, 2019, where Cohn told Walls he was about to “go do this,” meaning rob the bank, prosecutors said.
Donning ski masks, they entered the bank and threatened to kill the employees as Walls brandished a gun. The pair then fled the branch with nearly $150,000 in cash.
Weeks later, on Feb. 26, Walls and Cohn entered an M&T Bank branch in North Greenbush, again wearing ski masks and brandishing a gun. At one point Cohn fired multiple shots, grazing an employee.
Police eventually tracked the men, and their getaway driver, to a motel in Albany using a GPS device that a bank employee had placed in the stolen money.
At the time of his arrest, Cohn had more than $10,000 in cash on him, prosecutors said. He was also wearing the same red sneakers captured on the bank’s security camera.
Walls was nabbed in the motel’s lobby, where officers found him with several bags containing nearly $4,000 in cash and ski masks.
Cohn was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to firearms, armed robbery, and conspiracy charges.
Walls is due to be sentenced on Wednesday, Dec. 27. Under the terms of his plea agreement, prosecutors are asking the judge to give him 17 years behind bars.
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