MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CALDWELL BANK ROBBERY

Julio Gamez, 27, of Corvallis, Oregon, entered a guilty plea in federal court today to armed bank robbery and use of a firearm during a crime of violence. Gamez admitted to robbing the Wells Fargo Bank at 5218 Cleveland Boulevard, Caldwell, Idaho, on November 26, 2008.

A few minutes after the bank opened at 9:00 a.m., Gamez and a co-defendant entered the Wells Fargo Bank, brandishing pistols and wearing masks, baseball caps and gloves.

The bank manager saw the defendants enter the bank and activated a silent alarm. The armed robbers pointed their guns at the nine employees and customers in the bank and yelled orders. While emptying the tills, they ordered bank employees into the vault to get the money. The manager told them that the vault was on a time lock, and she could not open it for 20 minutes. The defendants decided that they would wait the 20 minutes to open the safe and ordered their hostages, except the bank manager and another employee, into the safe deposit room. When two customers came into the bank, they too were ordered into the safe deposit room at gunpoint.

Police arrived shortly after in response to the alarm. The manager advised Gamez and the co-defendant to put down the money and their guns and give up, because they would otherwise be shot and killed. Eventually, the two put down their guns inside the bank and followed the manager outside where they were taken into custody by the police at 9:27 a.m.

Sentencing is set for June 11, 2009, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise.

Gamez faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, a fine of up to $500,000, and supervised release of up to five years following the term of incarceration.

The co-defendant, Jesus Alexander Mendoza, is set for trial on April 27, 2009.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Caldwell Police Department.