U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee has sentenced countless convicted felons, and plenty of bank robbers, in his 14 years as a judge. He has heard many excuses, numerous justifications and hundreds of pleas for leniency.
And so yesterday, the federal judge stared down at 19-year-old Dave C. Williams, the lanky Fairfax County man who admitted that he and his girlfriend robbed four banks last fall, holdups that were attributed to the "cell phone bandit." Before Williams could speak, the judge stopped him.
"Turn around," Lee told the trembling teenager. "Look at your family." The courtroom was packed with relatives and friends. "We want to know why you're here. We want to know what you were thinking. We want to know about the bank tellers who go to work every day, who felt their lives were threatened."
For the next five minutes, Williams apologized. And then apologized some more. To the bank tellers. To the prosecutors. To his family. He offered to do "thousands of hours of community service" rather than a lengthy prison stint.
"No matter what I tell you, it's no excuse for what I've done," Williams said.
Payback time
Lee sentenced Williams to 12 years in federal prison and ordered him and his girlfriend, Candice R. Martinez, to repay $43,850 to the banks they robbed in three weeks last fall.
Williams pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and using a gun during a felony, as did Martinez, 19, of Santa Fe, N.M. The two met as students at Northern Virginia Community College in September, fell in love, moved in together and by mid-October began robbing banks.
In each holdup, Martinez would saunter in casually, talking to Williams on the cell phone while he sat outside acting as a lookout in the getaway car. Martinez would then show a note demanding cash from tellers in Vienna, Springfield, Manassas and Ashburn. In the final robbery, in Ashburn, Martinez flashed a handgun in her purse, which Williams admitted giving her.
The pair netted $48,620 from the four robberies, police said. The couple rented an apartment in Chantilly and spent money on clothes, large-screen televisions and other electronics, even buying a used car for a friend. Investigators recovered $3,500 in cash from the apartment and seized a number of the items they had bought, many with price tags still on them.
As media interest in the "cell phone bandit" intensified and surveillance photographs were broadcast across the nation, tipsters told police they recognized the woman who robbed banks while talking on her cell phone.
Williams and Martinez provided full confessions. Prosecutors agreed to the same deal for both, allowing them to plead guilty to two charges rather than four.
"It's not uncommon for me to sentence someone to 30 years, or 20 years, for four bank robberies," the judge told Williams. "Eleven or 12 years suggests a great deal has been cut for you by the prosecution and your defense attorney."
Judge doesn’t buy plea for leniency
Williams faced a mandatory seven-year term for the gun charge, and federal sentencing guidelines suggested five more years for the conspiracy charge. Michael F. Devine, Williams's attorney, told the judge that seven years was plenty for a penitent teenager, who a psychologist testified was immature and had difficulty making decisions.
Devine pointed out that Williams's world "was crumbling" in October, when the robberies began. His father had just been sentenced to eight months in jail for embezzlement, and his mother was facing deportation proceedings.
"I think Mr. Williams honestly felt that he wasn't going to survive," Devine said.
Lee said sternly, "These people who work in banks, like you used to work in banks" — Williams had been a teller at the first Wachovia branch they robbed, in Vienna — "are people that come to work every day and handle other people's money. They don't expect to be threatened and intimidated with notes and guns by people who are trying to rob banks."
Lee said, "It's not fair for you to blame your mother and father for your problems. I read the newspaper article that you and Ms. Martinez participated in," referring to interviews the pair gave to The Washington Post in December. "It didn't seem like Romeo and Juliet, and it's not Bonnie and Clyde. You're very fortunate you didn't die in a hail of bullets."
Martinez will be sentenced Friday, also by Lee.
