WILMINGTON — Both suspects in a string of bank robberies in 2019 — including one in Hamlet — have been sentenced in federal court.
The office of Mike Easley, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announced Monday that 40-year-old Alexis Baez Morales, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 40 months behind bars and three years of supervised probation for his involvement in the “Pink Lady Bandit” robberies.
The “Pink Lady” herself, 38-year-old Circe Nena Baez, also of Harrisburg, was sentenced Feb. 16 to 42 months and three years of supervised release, according to a press release. She was also ordered to pay restitution to all the banks.
Morales pleaded guilty Dec. 7, and Baez on Nov. 2 of 2021, according to federal prosecutors.
Baez was dubbed the “Pink Lady Bandit” because of a pink handbag she carried in at least two of the robberies, according to the FBI. According to federal prosecutors, Morales was the get-away driver.
The crime spree began when Baez robbed a bank in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on July 20, 2019. Three days later, Baez and Morales hit a bank in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, before heading to North Carolina and robbing the bank in Ayden the next day.
According to a press release, when Baez robbed the Southern Bank branch in Ayden, she had presented the teller with a note demanding money and reading that her children were being held hostage. Baez left the bank with $2,492.
Investigators confirmed that no children were part of the robbery, according to the release.
They robbed the BB&T in Hamlet on July 26, 2019 and were caught two days later at the Charlotte Speedway Inn & Suites and taken into custody by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Violent Criminal Apprehension Team.
The press releases announcing both sentencings only indicate that Baez and Morales were convicted of the Ayden robbery.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, police in Hamlet, Ayden, Charlotte and Carlisle Borough, and the Delaware State Police, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan Stephany and John Parris.
