A 33-year-old South LA man was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for robbing six credit unions, along with two additional robberies of credit unions while out on bond and awaiting trial for federal bank robbery charges.
A resident of the Broadway-Manchester neighbourhood in South Los Angeles, Trayvon McNutt, had pleaded guilty to six counts of bank robbery and attempted bank robbery on August 30. McNutt made a sum of $24,930 from the robberies, of which $2,115 was stolen while awaiting trial for his previous arrest.
MO of the robberies
According to the statement by the US Attorney's Office, McNutt's targets were lenders located in Carson, Gardena, Hawthorne, Lynwood, and Torrance. Two credit unions in Gardena and Carson were robbed twice by him— he returned to rob these banks a second time after having robbed them previously.
McNutt's modus operandi was walking into a local credit union and presenting the teller with a note that stated his intention to rob them and issued threats. "I have a gun," and "I am armed," read several of his notes.
While carrying out one of his robberies at a California Credit Union in Carson on July 17, 2018, McNutt is said to have given a threat note to the teller that read, "This is a robbery. I am armed. Give me your cash or someone will get shot." Between June and September 2018, he repeated the exercise on six separate occasions.
First arrest
McNutt was arrested in October 2018 in Inglewood, based on a federal criminal complaint alleging bank robbery. An officer had spotted his gold-coloured Cadillac XTS that was parked on an Inglewood street. He was later pulled over and arrested for multiple outstanding traffic warrants. After posting a $40,200 bail, he was released.
The second arrest while awaiting trial
While out on bail and awaiting trial, McNutt robbed two more credit unions. The statement said, "While he was out on bond in this bank robbery case, McNutt — this time, unlike the previous robberies, wearing a long dreadlocks hairstyle wig — robbed two additional credit unions in Hawthorne during a five-day span in May 2019."
The South LA resident was arrested later that month has been in federal custody since then.
Imprisonment and ordered restitution to the victims
The sentence carries with it a 63-month sentence in federal prison. In addition to that, McNutt has also been ordered to pay restitution to the credit unions that he had robbed during his spree of robberies.
