United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Quantal Blake, age 28, of Omaha, Nebraska, was convicted of three counts of bank robbery this afternoon following a jury trial this week, in front of the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp. Sentencing has been set for Aug. 24, 2015. The defendant faces a maximum of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine on each count.
On February 4, 2014, the Premier Bank located at 352 North 114th Street was robbed at approximately 11:15 a.m., when two men ran in, with partially covered faces, and demanded money. They took money from the bank and fled the area. A vehicle they had stolen the night before was used and was recovered, abandoned, a few blocks away. On March 20, 2014, at approximately 8:40 a.m., two men with masks drove up to the front door of the same bank. The passenger got out of a vehicle that had been stolen the day before, and attempted to enter the bank. The lobby was not yet open. They fled the area, striking another vehicle in the process and abandoned the vehicle a short distance away. Later that same day, at approximately 1:17 p.m., two males entered the First Westroads Bank located at 612 North 98th Street. The men had their faces obscured and one had his hand under a coat as if he had a weapon. They got money from the bank, fled the area, and abandoned the vehicle they used near 96th and Western.
Through the efforts of the Omaha Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation it was determined Blake was on parole from a prior robbery conviction. As part of his parole he was required to wear an electronic monitoring device on his ankle. The device was tracked by time and location to the places where each robbery occurred, from the locations where both vehicles had been stolen and where all three vehicles had been abandoned after the robberies.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Omaha Police Department.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
