SPELLING BEE BANDIT SENTENCED
Jason S. Englen, 34, a Chelsea resident known as the “Spelling Bee Bandit,”, received a sentence of 84 months in prison and three years of supervised release on March 7 from U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns in federal court in Boston. The conviction stemmed from four bank robberies to which Englen pleaded guilty in November 2017.
The first robbery occurred on Oct. 31, 2016, when a man later identified as Englen walked into a TD Bank branch in Arlington. He handed a teller a demand note written on a deposit slip, with the word “robbery” misspelled. After receiving cash from the drawer, Englen left the note behind and fled.
Three more robberies followed using the same method: TD Bank in Reading on November 5, Salem Five in Burlington on November 7, and TD Bank in Peabody on November 13. The pattern of robberies and the robber’s physical description led law enforcement to identify Englen, who was already in state custody on unrelated charges. Federal authorities arrested him on Dec. 12, 2016, and charged him after seeking public assistance.
SALVADORAN SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL RE-ENTRY
On March 8, a Salvadoran national received sentencing in federal court in Boston for illegally returning to the United States following deportation. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton sentenced Gerardo Alberto Perez-Fuentes, 22, to six months in prison and one year of supervised release, with deportation proceedings to follow upon sentence completion. Perez-Fuentes had pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien.
Perez-Fuentes had been deported previously on Sept. 4, 2015, and again on Oct. 8, 2015. Law enforcement in Chelsea encountered him on Sept. 6, 2017, and determined his presence in the United States to be unlawful.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Michael Shea, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston. Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus, from Lelling’s Major Crimes Unit, handled the prosecution.