Ex-PNC employee sentenced for bank robberies

A former PNC bank employee who robbed or tried to rob four PNC branches — including the one in Bloomfield where she had worked — was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in federal prison.

U. S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed that term on Jasmine Parrish, half of a rare all-female team of bandits who robbed the banks in 2018, threatened violence against tellers and got away with more than $90,000.

The case was unusual in that nearly all armed bank robbers are men.

Parrish and her friend Donna Poremski wore disguises and carried out the robberies together, with Poremski brandishing a BB gun in one holdup. In the attempted robbery of the Bloomfield branch, Parrish had an underage relative go in and pass a note threatening to blow up the bank.

Parrish, 31, was the brains of the operation; she and Poremski had known each other when they both worked as home health care aides.

“I apologize for my actions,” Parrish told the judge. “What I did was wrong. And I deserve to go to jail.”

Her lawyer, Joe Yablonski, argued for a downward variance on the grounds that his client suffers from mental and physical health problems and that this was her first offense.

At one point in the hearing, Parrish said she has heard voices telling her to kill herself.

Mr. Yablonski asked for time served, considering that Parrish has been in jail since January 2019.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Rebecca Silinski argued against the variance and for a guideline range sentence, saying the bank robberies were well planned and involved the use of disguises, props, and threats of violence with guns and bombs.

In the case of the bomb threat at the Bloomfield branch on Nov. 21, 2018, Parrish knew she’d be recognized there because she had worked at that branch. So she sent her relative

in with a profane note, threatening to kill people and blow up the bank. The note, which Parrish had written, was signed “Veteran of America.”

There was no bomb, and a teller was able to talk the juvenile out of robbing the bank — but Ms. Silinski said that doesn’t matter.

“No one in that bank knew that that was just a threat,” she said.

She also said Parrish’s various health issues can be addressed in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which provides treatment for inmates.

Judge Fischer decided to vary downward somewhat based on Parrish’s medical needs, which she said includes bipolar disorder and depression, as well as a heart condition and her weight, which the judge said at some points has reached 300 pounds on a 5foot-9 frame.

The judge said Parrish will get credit for time served and recommended to the prisons bureau that she get treatment for obesity and other conditions, as well as her mental health problems, while locked up.

Parrish, of Pittsburgh, had previously pleaded guilty to robbing banks in West Mifflin, McCandless and Penn Hills and to the attempted holdup in Bloomfield.

She and Poremski were indicted in January 2019.

Pittsburgh police and the FBI said that between January and Nov. 21, 2018, the pair held up PNC branches on Clairton Boulevard in West Mifflin, McKnight Road in McCandless and Rodi Road in Penn Hills.

Parrish admitted that she and Poremski conspired to rob the first three locations and that she drove her underage relative to Bloomfield and wrote the demand note for her to try to rob the PNC on Liberty Avenue.

During the first heist of the West Mifflin PNC on June 23, Parrish and Poremski tried to conceal their identities by dressing in Middle Eastern clothes, including wearing hijabs over their faces. Parrish also carried a cane and wore an oxygen tank to make herself look older and partially disabled.

The two women walked up to a teller station and passed a demand note while warning that they had a bomb. Surveillance footage also shows Poremski holding what appeared to be a gun. The two women ordered the tellers to empty their cash drawers and then forced them into the vault, where they ordered the employees to stuff more money into a suitcase.

Parrish admitted that she and Poremski stole $61,124 in that robbery — an unusually large amount. Most bank heists yield a few thousand dollars, if that.

In the robberies in McCandless and Penn Hills, Parrish walked in wearing a disguise to survey the banks, after which she said Poremski robbed them.

In the McCandless holdup, Poremski carried a gun and demanded money from the tellers. She then directed employees into the vault to put money in a bag. Parrish was outside in the getaway car. She admitted that the two women got away with $35,500 in that robbery.

In the Penn Hills case, Parrish was again the getaway driver. Poremski demanded money from the tellers and threatened to use a gun, although she never showed one. The women stole just $350 in that case.

In all, federal prosecutors said, the pair stole more than $90,000 from the three banks, which has not been recovered.

Poremski has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.