Crime & Safety

Manchester Man Gets 12 Years in Federal Prison for Bank Robberies

Authorities say that Felix Soto and his brother are guilty of at least three bank robberies in Connecticut in the past several years.

Felix Soto, a 43-year old Manchester man, was sentenced Thursday in a Hartford courtroom to 12 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for participating in at least three area bank robberies. 

According to United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut David B. Fein, Soto and his brother Luis robbed a Webster Bank branch in Berlin of approximately $40,000 in July of 2008. 

According to court documents, Felix Soto and his brother entered the bank dressed in dark clothes and stocking masks and armed with handguns on July 25, 2008, and forced a teller to empty his cash drawer into a duffle bag. During the three-minute robbery, Felix Soto issued threats and pointed a handgun at customers, while his brother Luis leapt over the counter and emptied the cash drawer. The brothers then exited the bank and fled through the woods, where a getaway car was waiting parked along Route 9. 

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Authorities said that the brothers recruited two others to place bogus 911 calls about a home invasion in another part of Berlin during the robbery to divert police. 

Prosecutors were able to use forensic evidence, including a hat and stocking mask left near the scene that contained DNA from the Soto brothers, as well as $5,000 in stolen money that was recovered by Berlin police along the escape route. Cell records were also used to show that the Soto brothers and the other participants in the robbery called each other "extensively" during the time of the robbery using cell towers close to the Berlin bank. 

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On August 25, 2011, Luis Soto pled guilty to robbing a Citizens Bank branch in Higganum of $8,500 on Aug. 18, 2008, and a New Alliance Ban branch in Windsor of $50,786 on Sept. 19, 2009. The investigation revealed that Felix Soto was also a participant in both robberies. 

Luis Soto was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in December of 2011. 

Felix Soto was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Berlin and Windsor Police Departments investigated the case;  DNA analysis was provided by the State of Connecticut’s Forensic Science Laboratory.


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