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Press Release
Used Inside Information Provided By His Accomplice
Baltimore, Maryland –Darrius Roszario D. Washington, age 20, of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to an armed bank robbery in which Washington forced a teller at gunpoint to accompany him and open the bank vault.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department.
According to Washington=s plea agreement, on October 1, 2013, Washington and an accomplice parked his car in a parking lot near the M&T Bank in Dundalk. Washington’s accomplice had previously been a teller-trainee at the bank and was familiar with the bank layout, bank procedures and the tellers who worked at the bank. Shortly before 7:30 a.m. Washington and his accomplice approached a teller in the parking lot when she got out of her car. Washington pointed a .32 caliber gun at the teller’s head and ordered her to unlock the door of the bank. The teller initially told Washington that she could not open the door but Washington told her he knew she was lying and threatened to “blow her head off,” if she didn’t unlock the door. The teller opened the door and after Washington and his accomplice entered the bank, the teller fled and called police.
Once inside the bank, Washington, using information provided by his accomplice, approached a second teller, calling her by name. Washington knew that the teller had access to the bank’s vault. Using the gun, Washington forced the teller to accompany him to the vault and ordered her to open the door, threatening that if she did not, she would never see her child, whom Washington called by name, again. The teller opened the vault door and Washington forced her to the floor at gunpoint. Washington removed the money from the vault, while his accomplice emptied the cash from the teller drawers. Washington and his accomplice then left the bank, carrying a canvas bag filled with $133,600, stolen from the bank, got into their car and attempted to flee. They were arrested a short time later and officers recovered the cash stolen from the bank, the gun used during the robbery, and the hats and blue latex gloves worn by Washington and his accomplice during the robbery.
Washington faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for armed bank robbery. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for August 1, 2014, at 3:00 p.m.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI and Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Gregory R. Bockin and Judson T. Mihok, who are prosecuting the case.