Second Man Sentenced in Pair of Bank Holdups
A Glendale man has been sentenced to more than 40 years in federal prison for robbing banks in Burbank and North Hollywood last year, the FBI announced Friday.
Benjamin Velasquez Jr., 33, was arrested in December after he and Robert Duane Smith, 26, of Bloomington, Calif., led police on a 20-minute car chase through Burbank and Glendale before they lost control and crashed the car.
The two had escaped with some $70,000 during the two robberies.
Smith was given a 16-year, three-month sentence in May for robbing the Burbank Federal Credit Union and for using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
Velasquez, who was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 40 years and eight months, had pleaded guilty to robbing the Burbank credit union as well as the North Hollywood branch of California Federal Bank, the FBI said in a statement.
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