Evergreen Reporter

U.S. District Judge Anne Conway has sentenced Johnson Saint-Louis, a 39-year-old resident of Deerfield Beach, to 14 years and 3 months in federal prison for bank robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. The court also mandated the forfeiture of a Ruger firearm and assorted ammunition used during the offense. A jury found Saint-Louis guilty on May 30, 2024.

Testimony and evidence presented at trial revealed that Saint-Louis, a former ATM technician, tampered with ATMs serviced by his previous employer across the southeast. On February 16, 2021, he robbed a bank in Longwood by manipulating the drive-thru ATM to malfunction. He waited for an ATM technician to arrive and open the machine and vault containing cash. Wearing dark clothing, a mask, and gloves to conceal his identity, Saint-Louis approached from a hole in the parking lot perimeter fence. He confronted the technician with a firearm, forcing him to his knees while transferring approximately $135,530 from the vault cassettes into a backpack.

The FBI's investigation included surveillance by Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputies. On November 4, 2021, deputies observed Saint-Louis visiting various bank locations in Seminole County before stopping him during traffic. They discovered a firearm with black tape covering its serial numbers inside his car along with several pieces of paper listing bank branch locations in Jacksonville annotated with details about ATMs manufactured by Saint-Louis’s former employer or other companies.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, and Tallahassee Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rachel S. Lyons and Chauncey A. Bratt.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which aims to reduce violent crime and gun violence through collaboration between law enforcement agencies and communities. The Department launched an enhanced violent crime reduction strategy on May 26, 2021, emphasizing community trust and legitimacy, support for violence prevention organizations, strategic enforcement priorities, and measurable results.