JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man has been sentenced to nine years and six months in federal prison for an armed bank robbery, a release from a U.S. district judge says.
Brett Amante, 39, pleaded guilty to bank robbery and brandishing a firearm in February 2022. He was accused of robbing a Wells Fargo Bank in Jacksonville.
According to court documents, on the morning of February 26, 2021, Amante entered the bank and approached a teller, passing him a bag and a note threatening that if the teller gave him a dye pack, "it will not end well with you."
When the teller pressed the panic button, Amante brandished two loaded 9mm pistols. The teller gave him approximately $1,046, the release said.
Amante escaped in a getaway vehicle, but not for long.
The teller led police right to him: he had placed a GPS in the bag.
Amante was walking through his front door with the money, a gun and a stolen license plate he had used on the car when law enforcement found him, documents show.
Law enforcement recovered one of the other guns used in the robbery during a search of Amante’s house, along with an AR-15-style rifle, 869 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 993 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition, body armor, an unregistered firearms silencer, surveillance equipment, handcuffs, and zip ties.
Officers also searched the getaway vehicle and recovered an unregistered AR-15-style short-barreled rifle loaded with armor-piercing ammunition, along with multiple loaded spare magazines for the rifle and the 9mm pistols, documents show.
