A federal grand jury indicted three people accused in a series of Northern California bank robberies, including one in Sacramento last year, in which primarily women were allegedly recruited on Instagram to hand notes demanding money to bank tellers.
Dontae Jerome Jones Jr., 20, Yasmin Charisse Millett, 21, and JoMya Mauriyne Futch, 21, were charged with conspiracy to commit bank robbery and bank robbery, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento announced in a news release.
Futch faces an additional charge of perjury. Prosecutors said Futch on Aug. 15 testified as a witness for the grand jury and knowingly made false statements.
All three defendants have been arrested. Futch and Millett were arraigned last week in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California. Court records show that Jones, who was arrested in Alameda County, was arraigned in federal court Tuesday in Sacramento.
Jones and Jerome were being held Thursday in Sacramento County Main Jail, and they are both ineligible for bail. Futch of Richmond was released on $25,000 bail while awaiting trail, court records show.
Jones and Millet, who have lived in Northern California motels with no fixed address, are accused of being the masterminds of the bank robbery scheme and recruiting people present notes demanding cash at banks, according to the Sept. 26 filed indictment, which was unsealed last week after the three defendants were arrested.
Prosecutors said Jones and Millett conspired to commit at least 10 bank robberies at eight credit unions and two banks in Sacramento, Vallejo, Suisun City, Benicia, Concord and Antioch and worked with others to carry out the bank robberies.
Jones and Millett “actively sought and groomed recruits,” including Futch, as “the note passers in the targeted” banks, according to the indictment. Millet allegedly advertised the bank robbery conspiracy in Instagram videos and photographs of herself and other participants holding large amounts of cash.
“Happy Money Makin(sic) Mondays! I got one spot left in a car tap in,” Millett allegedly wrote in the Instagram posts, according to the indictment.
Futch is accused of being a recruit who voluntarily joined the conspiracy to act as a note passer on at least two occasions. The indictment indicates Jones and Millett sometimes directed recruits to wear dark sunglasses at the banks to conceal their identities and encouraged them to carry purses to hold the stolen cash as they left the bank and left in a waiting getaway vehicle.
Jones and Millett are accused of using often stolen vehicles, sometimes of with heavily tinted windows to conceal those inside, to drive the recruits to the banks. The indictment alleges that Jones and Millett, on at least one occasion, used the threat of force to coerce people they recruited online as bank robbery note passers, and they allegedly used a minor at least once to carry out the bank robbery.
In the news release, prosecutors said the bank robbers used threatening notes demanding money, generally instructing bank employees to hand over the money or “I will kill everyone in here.”
The indictment alleges that a note handed to a credit union employee in Suisun City had these instructions: “Dont Make Eye Contact Dont look suspicious Dont Push the Emergency Button Put a smile on your face and Pull THE MONEY OUT OR I WILL SHOOT.”
On one occasion, a woman was held at gunpoint and forced her to commit the bank robbery against her will, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The woman was held at gunpoint by an unidentified person in the vehicle on July 24, 2023, after Jones drove Millett and the two other people to a bank in Benicia, according to the indictment. The gun was pointed at the woman after Jones and Millett allegedly told her she had to go inside and hand the demanding note to the bank employee. The alleged bank robbery was carried out, and over $13,000 in cash was stolen.
If convicted of conspiracy to commit bank robbery, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000, a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the bank robbery charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Futch, if convicted of perjury, would face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
