WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - An Eagle Scout who researched how to rob banks on YouTube has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after his attorney requested leniency because his client had reached a low point in his life and was driven by substance abuse and undiagnosed mental illness.
In addition to his prison sentence, Samuel Jose Baptista, 27, of Boston was also sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Worcester to two years of probation and was ordered to pay restitition, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
He had faced up to 40 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for nearly four years behind bars.
Baptista pleaded guilty in February to robbing banks in Worcester and Revere in October 2019.
In both cases he claimed to have a bomb in his backpack, prosecutors said.
In a 10-page sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Timothy Watkins said his client is a decent man who had never been convicted of a crime, The Telegram & Gazette reports. Despite a difficult upbringing, he had reached the rank of Eagle Scout, but a series of misfortunes including addiction, homelessness, and the loss of a job drove him to the robberies.
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