United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announces today that United States District Judge William H. Steele sentenced defendant Robert Bernard Carlise, also known as Robert Bernard Carlisle, 73, of Mobile, Alabama, to imprisonment for 46 months for bank robbery.

As part of the sentence, the judge ordered the defendant to receive three years of supervised release after completing his prison term, pay a $100 mandatory special assessment, receive substance abuse testing and treatment as directed by the United States Probation Office, and pay restitution in the amount of $2,829.25 to BBVA Compass Bank.

The defendant has a lengthy criminal history and was previously convicted of federal felony offenses, including bank robbery, in the Southern District of Alabama.

On September 14, 1973, the defendant appeared before the Court and was convicted of bank robbery. On October 17, 1980, he appeared before the Court and was convicted of forgery of a U.S. Treasury check and possession of stolen mail. On June 11, 1998, he appeared before the Court and was convicted of bank robbery and using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

On October 30, 2019, a federal grand jury for the Southern District of Alabama charged the defendant with one count of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). On February 11, 2020, the defendant pleaded guilty to the felony offense before the Court and was sentenced after his plea hearing.

The defendant admitted to facts to include the following at his plea hearing. On September 6, 2019, an unmasked black male with sunglasses, later identified as the defendant, entered BBVA Compass Bank, on Bel Air Blvd in Mobile, a federally insured bank.

The defendant told the teller that he was robbing the bank and ordered her to give him all of the money. He said he did not want to have to hurt her but that she needed to comply and give him the money. He repeatedly said, “You know what time it is.” The teller complied with the defendant’s demands out of fear of being harmed and gave him $2,829.25 from her drawer. The bank’s video surveillance captured the robbery and showed the defendant inside the bank speaking with the teller.

At 12:41am on September 7, 2019, the Mobile Police Department received a tip from a person who said he recognized and knew the defendant. Two days later, the Mobile Police Department visited BBVA Compass and met with its branch vice president, who said that the defendant was a BBVA customer who had an account with the bank.

On September 10, 2019, the Mobile Police Department arrested and interviewed the defendant. Post-Miranda, the defendant confessed to robbing BBVA Compass. The defendant said he was in debt to a drug dealer, that he owed the dealer lots of money, and that the dealer persuaded him to rob the bank. The defendant said that he had entered the bank and robbed it to get money to give to the drug dealer to get back his vehicle and phone, which the drug dealer was keeping as collateral.