Grandmother admits robbing West Mifflin bank
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For her day in court, Marilyn Devine wore a button-up shirt, checkered blue and white. She stood well below 5 feet. Several relatives crouched down and kissed her on the forehead or cheek.
Marilyn DevineClick photo for larger image.
Then, the 76-year-old grandmother pleaded guilty to a March 2006 bank robbery, when she made off with $5,960 in a bag.
Prosecutors decided not to seek the mandatory five- to 10-year sentence for Ms. Devine, of Baldwin Borough, prompting her attorney to agree to the plea deal. Her lawyer, Noah Geary, hopes that Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donald E. Machen will decide against jail time during the sentencing now scheduled for June 27.
Ms. Devine, he said, committed the robbery -- using an unloaded 9 mm gun -- while dealing with depression and anxiety. A day earlier, one of her sons, in financial trouble, told her he would "do himself in" if he didn't come up with some money.
"That's how she came up with this bad idea," Mr. Geary said.
The following morning -- March 6, 2006 -- Ms. Devine appeared at the National City Bank branch inside the Shop 'n Save on Mountain View Drive in West Mifflin. She robbed two tellers, demanding they fill her bag with money, and left the building, leading police on a chase through a residential neighborhood.
The money was recovered, and Ms. Devine told a detective that she had committed the crime.
"Why are you pleading guilty?" Judge Machen asked her yesterday, holding the signed document for her to see.
"I'm pleading guilty to the charges," Ms. Devine answered, speaking slowly, "because I was in such a state at the time, I don't think I really knew ..."
Her voice trailed off.
"Would you like a moment to talk to your lawyer?" the judge asked.
After a brief consultation with Mr. Geary, Ms. Devine continued speaking: "I am guilty of the crime, your honor."
More than a dozen friends and family filled the front rows of the courtroom yesterday. Since the robbery, Ms. Devine, having used her property deed to post bail, has received psychological counseling. Until her sentencing, Judge Machen said, Ms. Devine must continue those visits and refrain from contact with the witnesses, the tellers or the bank itself.
Ms. Devine's sister-in-law, Susan McDade, called the robbery "misguided," and "an act of desperation" on behalf of a troubled son, whom she'd previously tried to help by taking out loans. Those decisions, Mr. Geary said, had created tension between Ms. Devine and her husband, Raymond.
"He had put his foot down," Mr. Geary said. "She had a feeling of kind of being trapped."
Ms. Devine had no prior criminal history.
"I don't think she's a threat to society," Ms. McDade said.
First Published April 6, 2007 12:00 am
