Woman Pleads Guilty to Bank Robbery

CAMDEN, N.J. – A New Jersey woman pleaded guilty to bank robbery, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced.

Ciara Brascom, 38, of Newark, pleaded guilty to an information charging her with one count of bank robbery before U.S. District Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On July 28, 2024, Brascom entered a bank in Princeton and demanded cash from a bank teller, while holding what appeared to be a black handgun. During the robbery, Brascom threatened that she would use the gun if the bank’s alarm was activated. Brascom fled from the bank after taking approximately $60,500.

The charge in the information to which Brascom pleaded guilty carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for October 6, 2025.

U.S. Attorney Alina Habba credited special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly in Newark, with the investigation leading to the charges. She also thanked the Princeton Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police Christopher Tash, and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey, for their assistance in the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Shephard of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton. 

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Defense counsel: Andrea G. Aldana, Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Trenton