MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CALDWELL BANK ROBBERY

Jesus Mendoza, 32, 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. Mendoza 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., Mendoza and Julio Gamez, who previously pled guilty on March 11, 2009, 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 two 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 Mendoza and Gamez to put down the money and their guns and surrender or they would be shot and killed. Eventually, the two put down their guns inside the bank and followed the manager outside where they were taken into police custody at 9:27 a.m.

Sentencing is set for June 18, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise.

Mendoza and Gamez face 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 case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Caldwell Police Department.