After North Texas bank crimes, Florida man was on video with cash. He’s going to prison
A man who admitted to traveling from Florida to Texas in 2021 to rob at least five banks in Dallas and Richardson was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 11 years in a federal prison, a federal official said.
His co-defendant, who drove him to Texas, has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting bank robbery. She is awaiting sentencing.
Thomas Joseph Banno, 54, pleaded guilty in August to bank robbery and he was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr to 140 months’ imprisonment, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Banno admitted to the holdups in Dallas and Richardson from June 2021 to August 2021 while he was on probation for a bank robbery in Florida, authorities said.
Each time, Banno donned a mask, entered the bank, and demanded “all the $50s and $100s” from the teller. On at least one occasion, he gestured as if he had a gun concealed under his shirt; on another, he told the teller he had a gun; and on two others, he brandished what appeared to be a silver pistol.
Federal court documents estimated that he stole almost $30,000 in the Dallas and Richardson holdups.
After each robbery, Banno fled the scene in a Dodge Caravan driven by his co-defendant, Sade Miranda Salters, 36, federal officials said.
Shortly after two of the robberies, Salters posted a Facebook Live video of herself flashing a stack of banded cash, according to the release. The video later pans to Banno asleep in the backseat of the van.
