June 2, 2010 - NEWARK, NJ—Bourahima Quattara was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for robbing a Mariner’s Bank branch in Dumont, New Jersey last summer, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Quattara pleaded guilty to the robbery on December 14, 2009, before United States District Judge Stanley R. Chesler, who also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
In the early evening of July 30, 2009, Bourahima Quattara, 20, and Alberto Marzan, 19, both of Bronx, New York, entered the Mariner’s Bank branch in Dumont, New Jersey in ski masks and black clothing and robbed the bank at gunpoint. The two men ordered the bank manager and a teller to the bank’s vault, ordered the vault opened, and took nearly $150,000 in cash.
The two men were spotted by an eyewitness who alerted local law enforcement officers of the robbery. The eyewitness provided a description of their vehicle to the Closter, New Jersey Police Department, which, in turn, broadcast the vehicle’s description through the New Jersey State Police Emergency Network. Shortly thereafter, police officers from the Fort Lee, New Jersey Police Department spotted the two men in the area of the George Washington Bridge, and gave chase. After the defendants attempted to elude capture, Fort Lee and New York City police officers arrested Quattara and Marzan in the Bronx. Officers recovered all of the stolen money.
Alberto Marzan pleaded guilty to the bank robbery on November 23, 2009, and was sentenced to 70 months in prison by Judge Chesler March 11, 2010.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Chesler sentenced Quattara to three years of supervised release.
In determining the actual sentence, Judge Chesler consulted the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant’s criminal history, if any, and other factors. The Judge, however, was not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to today’s sentence. He also thanked the police departments who worked together to effect the defendants’ capture.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Vartan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division.
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