Dorian Whitehead, Armed Bank Heists, PA 2017

Dorian Whitehead, 31, of Binghamton, New York, is headed to federal prison for 51 months after being sentenced on January 5, 2017, for her role in two armed bank heists in northeastern Pennsylvania. U.S. District Judge James M. Munley handed down the sentence and ordered Whitehead to pay $169,099 in restitution for the crimes she helped orchestrate from the comfort of her New York home.

Whitehead pleaded guilty on March 30, 2016, to aiding and abetting co-defendants Jule Futrell, 44, of Endicott, New York; Jemel Laquan King, 40; and Jeremy West, 41, both of Binghamton, in robbing two banks: the First National Community Bank (FNCB) in Jenkins Township on March 13, 2014, and the NBT Bank on Keyser Avenue in Scranton on November 26, 2014. While never stepping foot inside either bank, Whitehead played a critical role—monitoring police radio traffic using a cell phone app and feeding real-time intel to the robbers via a second phone and an earpiece worn by Futrell during both heists.

Her mission was clear: keep the crew ahead of law enforcement. As Futrell moved inside the banks, Whitehead stayed on the line, ready to warn of alarms or approaching police. The FNCB job netted the crew $57,469 in cash. The second, at NBT Bank, pulled in $111,630. Together, the haul totaled $169,099—exactly the amount she’s now ordered to repay.

Her co-defendants faced steeper consequences. Jeremy West, already tied to the FNCB robbery, was sentenced to 126 months for that crime, the April 18, 2014, armed robbery of a CVS Pharmacy in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and using a firearm in a violent crime. Jemel Laquan King was convicted by a federal jury on April 8, 2016, and received 157 months behind bars on July 26, 2016. Jule Futrell, implicated in both the bank jobs and the pharmacy robbery, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, armed bank robbery, and use of a firearm in a crime of violence, with sentencing scheduled for March 7, 2017.

The FBI’s Scranton and Binghamton field offices led the investigation, dismantling the crew’s communication setup and tracing the digital lifeline that connected Whitehead to the crime scenes. Prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Olshefski, who tied the conspiracy together through phone records, surveillance, and cooperating testimony.

Whitehead’s case underscores how modern bank robberies often extend beyond masks and guns—into homes, cell phones, and real-time coordination. But federal prosecutors made clear: even the unseen hands behind a crime won’t escape justice.