St. Michaels Man Sentenced for Tilghman Island Bank Robbery

Openly Walked Into the Bank with a .22 Caliber Rifle

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced James Anthony Welzenbach, age 61, of St. Michaels, Maryland, today to 51 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for armed bank robbery.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Colonel Marcus L. Brown, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Chief David A. Spence of the Easton Police Department; Chief Miguel Dennis of the St. Michaels Police Department and Talbot County Sheriff Dallas Pope.

According to his guilty plea, on March 31, 2011, Welzenbach entered the Talbot Bank of Tilghman on Tilghman Island, Talbot County, Maryland openly carrying a .22 caliber rifle. He demanded money from a teller and obtained $4,723. The ensuing investigation quickly identified the truck Welzenbach operated when leaving the bank and later that evening, he was arrested. The money and gun were found in a garbage dumpster of a restaurant on Tilghman Island. The rifle was an early model .22 caliber rifle with one round loaded in the single shot chamber. Some of the money was dye stained, indicating that at least one dye pack had exploded after Welzenbach left the bank.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI , the Maryland State Police, the Easton and St. Michaels Police Departments and the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney P. Michael Cunningham, who prosecuted the case.