Man who viewed bank robbery as ‘going to work’ sentenced to prison
A 64-year-old bank robber, who admitted that he viewed bank robbery as a job, will be out of work again.
U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi sentenced Wallace J. Silva Jr. to 15 1/2 years in prison on Feb. 15 for four bank robberies in Honolulu, although he admitted to 10 bank robberies during a crime spree in December 2016.
During the sentencing hearing, Silva admitted that he viewed committing bank robbery as “going to work,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Silva pleaded guilty on April 19 to committing four bank robberies in December 2016 in Honolulu.
Although Silva was only indicted on and pleaded guilty to four robberies, as part of a plea deal, he admitted to committing all 10 bank robberies and agreed to make restitution for all 10.
Silva robbed First Hawaiian Bank, Bank of Hawaii and American Savings Bank for a total of $32,000.
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The court ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $1,990 to First Hawaiian, $8,480 to Bank of Hawaii and $20,281 to American Savings.
Silva had two previous bank robbery convictions. In 1997, he was sentenced to 9 years and four months for a single robbery. Days after completing that sentence while on supervised release, he went on a spree committing four more bank robberies.
He was sentenced Sept. 6, 2007 to 12 1/2 years.
Then four months after his release in August 2016, he went to work on his 10 most recent bank robberies.
The FBI, Honolulu Police Department and U.S. Marshals Service conducted the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Silverberg prosecuted the case.
