Serial bank robber sentenced

NORRISTOWN » A Philadelphia man is headed to state prison in connection with four robberies at banks in Upper Gwynedd, Whitpain, Upper Dublin and Montgomery townships.

Jemeel Terrell Coates, 34, who listed addresses along Creston Street and North 2nd Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to three to eight years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery in connection with bank heists that occurred between August and September 2017. Judge Richard P. Haaz, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Coates to pay a total of $18,600 to the banks that were victims of the crime spree.

Coates, according to a criminal complaint, entered the Santander Bank branch at 1224 Welsh Road in Montgomery Township about 1:26 p.m. Aug. 15 and handed a note to a teller advising the teller not to hit a panic button and to give him $5,000 cash. Coates allegedly told the teller, “I have a gun” and “don’t take all day putting the money in the bag,” according to the arrest affidavit. Coates allegedly got away with $8,800 cash.

On Sept. 6, Coates entered the Beneficial Bank, 640 Skippack Pike, Whitpain, and handed a note demanding $8,000 “in big bills,” and claimed to have a weapon, according to court documents. During that heist, Coates got away with about $4,200, court papers indicate.

On Sept. 19, Coates struck again, this time at the BB&T Bank at 101 Fort Washington Avenue in Upper Dublin, at about 10:20 a.m. Detectives said Coates handed a note demanding $8,000 to a teller but did not display or imply he had a weapon. Coates made off with about $1,800 during that robbery, according to court papers.

Coates, detectives alleged, entered the Key Bank in the 1500 block of South Valley Forge Road in Upper Gwynedd, about 12:45 p.m. Sept. 27, handed a demand note to a teller and advised the teller not to hit a panic button.

“The demand note also stated that he had a weapon,” detectives alleged in court papers, adding Coates got away with about $2,318. “During the bank robbery, the teller advised that she was ‘scared to death’ and that she felt like her ‘heart was going to jump out of her chest.’”

Investigators used surveillance video footage to identify Coates as a suspect in the four robberies.

Later on Sept. 27, Montgomery Township police observed a gold Saturn Vue operated by Coates, the man fitting the description of the robbery suspect, and stopped the vehicle. During a subsequent interview, Coates admitted to robbing the Key Bank earlier that day, according to the criminal complaint.

On Sept. 28, detectives obtained a warrant to search Coates’ vehicle and inside found clothing that matched the description of that worn by the robber in some of the heists. Authorities also alleged they seized $2,318 in cash from Coates and his vehicle, matching the exact amount reported stolen from the Key Bank, according to the criminal complaint.