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Sunday, July 26, 2009
Longtime bank robber pleads guilty to Huber Heights heist
DAYTON — A New Jersey man who robbed a Fifth Third bank in Huber Heights, then led police on a chase that ended with a crash that injured an officer, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of bank robbery.
Randy Lee Mora, 54, of Williamstown, New Jersey, will be sentenced in U.S. District Court on Oct. 31. Bank robbery carries a sentence of 20 years imprisonment, $250 thousand fine and supervised release of three years, said Gregory G. Lockhart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Prior to his arrest, Mora spent most of the previous 20 years in federal prisons for bank robbery convictions.
Mora entered the bank, 7730 Brandt Pike, on July 8, 2008, and gave a teller a note demanding money. Mora then took the cash and fled the bank in a stolen Ford Ranger with New Jersey plates, but a witness followed Mora and called police as Mora stopped at an Englewood gas station, according to an affidavit of an FBI agent filed with the criminal complaint.
While at the gas station, Mora discarded a plastic bag and a dark shirt, glasses and hat he was wearing. Police tried to stop Mora as he left the gas station and headed west on Interstate 70. He managed to avoid one set of stop sticks, but hit a second, disabling his tires and damaging his rims, the affidavit said.
Mora led the officers across the Ohio-Indiana state line and hit a police cruiser parked in the median, injuring the officer who was ejected from the car by the force of the crash. Officers arrested Mora and found both the cash and the note he passed to the teller, the affidavit said.
Mora has been in custody since his arrest.
Mora was first sentenced for a 1988 armed bank robbery in Spokane, Wash., receiving a sentence of 21 months with three years supervised release, according to the records.
In 1990, while out on supervised release, he robbed a U.S. Bank branch in Spokane at gunpoint. This time, Mora got 19 years with five years supervised release.
After doing time in several federal prisons throughout the country and a failed stay at a halfway house, he was sent to the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa., to serve out his sentence. He was released May 16.
His probation case was transferred from the U.S. Eastern District Court of Washington to the District of New Jersey, where he was to be on probation until May 15, 2013.
The transfer was arranged so Mora could have the support of his family. His sister, Cheryl Mora, who lives in New Jersey, told the Dayton Daily News last year that she opened her home to him, hoping he would get back on his feet.
The week before the robbery, Mora became stressed and argumentative, then he stole Cheryl Mora’s boyfriend’s truck. He left her a note telling her he had taken it. Cheryl Mora said her brother suffers from several emotional and mental disorders he takes medication for, and he seemed unable to transition from prison to freedom.
