One of the two men involved in a 2017 armed bank robbery and bomb threats in the Centre Region has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison.
Rodrequis A. Council, a 33-year-old former University of Louisville football player, pleaded guilty in U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania last year to one count of armed robbery for working with Marquis Buckley, 41, to rob SPE Federal Credit Union on Science Park Road on Aug. 22, 2017.
Council’s sentence was handed down on March 29 and made public on Monday. Buckley was sentenced last fall to 15 years in prison for the Ferguson Township robbery and two bank robberies in Virginia.
The two men met while previously incarcerated in a federal correctional facility. Council moved to State College and Buckley joined him in the summer of 2017 and together ‘they concocted an elaborate scheme to rob the SPE Federal Credit Union,’ Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
Prior to the robbery, Council drove Buckley to Walmart, where they purchased phone cards to call in fake bomb threats and household items they fashioned to look like explosive devices. While Council placed one of the fake bombs at the Research West building on the Penn State campus, Buckley placed the other at Walmart on North Atherton Street.
About a minute apart, bomb threats were reported to police at both locations and an FBI bomb squad was called in, ultimately determining they were fake. While police were responding to the threats, Buckley took Council’s truck to he credit union where he handed a teller a bag and a note that stated, “If a dye pack goes off, the bomb will. If anyone walks out behind. Then I will detonate the bomb.”
He then placed a device that looked like a bomb on the counter and left after the teller placed about $7,200 in the bag. A robot was used to take apart the device, which was found not to be explosive.
Council told Buckley to meet him in Altoona, where they split the money and where Council paid for a hotel room for Buckley to stay until he left Pennsylvania.
Both men were apprehended in November 2017 and federal charges were filed in July 2018. Ferguson Township and Penn State police and the FBI investigated the case
In a pre-sentence memorandum, Council’s attorney, Jerry Russo, argued that his client was a ‘minor participant’ in the robbery and asked for a sentence of four years and one month.
‘[I]t bears noting that in Mr. Council’s case, he did not enter the bank in question, nor is there any evidence he was even present at the location when the robbery took place,’ Russo wrote. ‘While he acknowledges his participation in the scheme to divert law enforcement so that Buckley would be successful in the bank robbery, Council is an accomplice to the robbery and not the principal.’
The sentence issued by Brann, however, went above the guideline range of 51-71 months in prison.
Brann cited the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ of creating a diversion by planting fake bombs, which Brann said inflicted fear, shut down commerce and created a danger that a violent response could ensue.
‘Placing fake bombs in public areas causing Hitchcockian suspense appears to be as serious as the robbery itself, and this conduct is not captured in the guidelines calculation,’ Brann wrote.
Council played defensive back for Louisville from 2005 to 2007, but was kicked off the team following his arrest for an armed robbery in North Carolina. He was released from prison in 2015 and Russo wrote that ‘he was adjusting to his term of supervised release well, though he did have some issues that all appear to have stemmed from the inordinate use of alcohol.’
After his release from prison in 2015, Council re-enrolled at Louisville where he earned his degree in 2016. He relocafted to Pennsylvania and was accepted for admission at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, with his studies scheduled to begin in 2018, Russo wrote. Council was employed full-time at Hyatt Place in State College and had also applied for, but did not get, an assistant coaching position at Lock Haven.
In issuing the sentence, however, Brann cited Council’s ‘extensive criminal history’ and wrote that at the time of the credit union robbery, Council was on supervised release for a prior robbery.
‘His repeated encounters with law enforcement and extensive criminal history suggests a high likelihood of recidivism and that he has not, at least at this stage of the game, acquired respect for the law,’ Brann wrote. ‘And given Mr. Council’s background, there is a need to impose a sentence here to protect the public from further crimes of Mr. Council.’
Council said he has a history of depression and mental illness and has used alcohol, marijuana and ecstasy, but Brann wrote that none of those explained his conduct, noting that Council had achieved academic and athletic success and appeared to have family support.
‘In fact, Mr. Council’s education and accomplishments suggest that he should have known better — that is, that Mr. Council was in fact acquainted with what acceptable standards of behavior are,’ Brann wrote. ‘He is intelligent and was previously a star athlete while in high school and college. In sum, his personal history — in particular his extensive familial support and his educational experience—rendered his repeated criminal violations more inexplicable.’
Council filed an appeal on Monday.
