Mario Edward Roane, Bank Robbery, North Carolina 2020

A Charlotte man has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for robbing two banks in the city.

Mario Edward Roane, 56, of Charlotte, was sentenced to 151 months in prison on federal bank robbery charges, plus an additional five months in prison for violating his federal supervised release by committing the bank robberies, announced William T. Stetzer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. also sentenced Roane to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $6,350 in restitution to the banks and a $200 special assessment to the court.

According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, on March 18, 2020, Roane robbed the First Citizens Bank branch located at 128 South Tryon Street in Charlotte. Upon entering the bank, Roane approached a bank teller and told her ‘this is a robbery…I have a gun.’ The teller handed Roane $1,700 from the cash drawer and Roane fled the scene.

Five days later, on March 23, 2020, Roane robbed the Wells Fargo Bank branch located at 301 South Tryon Street in Charlotte. Roane entered the bank and waited in line for a teller. Once he arrived at the teller’s window, he demanded money and told the teller ‘Give me all your money, or I’ll blow your head off.’ The teller complied and Roane left the bank with $4,650 in cash.

According to court records, law enforcement identified Roane based on surveillance video from the banks. He was arrested on March 31, 2020. Court records show Roane has twice previously been convicted of federal bank robbery charges in the Western District of North Carolina and served two separate federal prison terms for those convictions.

When Roane committed the two robberies in March 2020, he was on federal supervised release for his most recent federal bank robbery conviction.

On August 17, 2020, Roane pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery. He is currently in federal custody and upon designation of a federal facility he will be transferred into custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force and CMPD investigated the case. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor Stout of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.

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