Titusville, New Jersey Man Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Robbing Pennington, New Jersey Bank

TRENTON, NJ—A Titusville, N.J., man was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for the robbery of a TD Bank in Pennington, N.J., United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Christopher Kerins, 54, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to an Information charging him with one count of bank robbery. Judge Thompson also imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

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

Kerins robbed the Pennington bank on August 8, 2010, of approximately $1,432. During the robbery, Kerins approached a bank teller and threw a black garbage bag over the counter, saying, "I have a gun. Put money in the bag quickly." The teller emptied her drawer into the bag, including marked bait money, and tripped the silent alarm.

Kerins was apprehended the same day after a civilian saw him running from the area carrying the garbage bag and wrote down the license plate of the car in which he fled. The civilian provided the plate number to employees of the bank and the information was called in to police, who broadcast an alert for the vehicle—which led to Kerins's detention.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Thompson sentenced Kerins to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Michael B. Ward in Newark, along with the Pennington Borough Police Department, Hopewell Township Police Department, and the U.S. Probation Office - District of New Jersey for the work leading to today's sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorney Robert G. Marasco of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Trenton.