Ulysses Jessie Walls, Armed Bank Robbery, New York 2023

ALBANY, NEW YORK – A Rensselaer man was sentenced to serve 17 years in federal prison for two 2019 armed bank robberies.

On February 6, 2019, Ulysses Jessie Walls, a/k/a ‘Guwala,’ 30, of Rensselaer, New York, and his accomplice Christopher Cohn, a/k/a ‘Wolf,’ pulled up to an Albany Trustco Bank branch, where Cohn declared he was about to ‘go do this,’ meaning that he planned to rob the bank.

Walls and Cohn then entered the bank wearing ski masks. In the bank, Walls displayed a gun, and both men threatened to kill the bank’s employees, who surrendered approximately $150,000 to the pair.

Walls also admitted that on the morning of February 26, 2019, he and Cohn entered an M&T Bank branch in North Greenbush, each wearing a ski mask and brandishing a gun. During the robbery, Cohn fired multiple shots, including one that grazed a bank employee.

According to court documents, law enforcement tracked Cohn, Walls, and their getaway driver to an Albany motel using a GPS device placed in the stolen money by a member of the bank’s staff. Cohn was apprehended by officers with more than $10,000 in cash and wearing red sneakers matching those captured by the bank’s surveillance cameras during the robbery.

Walls was arrested in the motel’s lobby, where officers found him with several bags containing approximately $3,800 in cash along with ski masks and other clothing matching that worn by the robbers.

United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also ordered Walls to serve a 5-year term of post-imprisonment supervised release, to pay $167,681 in restitution to his victims, and to forfeit $79,117.

Walls pleaded guilty to armed bank robbery, firearms, and conspiracy charges. This case was investigated by the FBI, the NYSP, the North Greenbush Police Department, and the Albany Police Department, with the assistance of the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua R. Rosenthal and Ashlyn Miranda prosecuted the case.

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