Deerfield Beach Man Sentenced To More Than 14 Years In Federal Prison For Armed Bank Robbery

Orlando, FL - U.S. District Judge Anne Conway today sentenced Johnson Saint-Louis (39, Deerfield Beach) to 14 years and 3 months in federal prison for bank robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. The court also ordered Saint-Louis to forfeit a Ruger firearm and assorted ammunition, which were used during the commission of the offense. A jury had found Saint-Louis guilty on May 30, 2024.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Saint-Louis was a former ATM technician who traveled around the southeast tampering with ATMs serviced by his former employer. On February 16, 2021, Saint-Louis robbed a bank in Longwood. Saint-Louis visited the location's drive-thru ATM, manipulated the ATM in a way that caused it to malfunction, and then waited for the ATM technician to arrive. Once the technician arrived and opened the ATM and vault containing the cash, Saint-Louis, dressed in dark clothing and wearing a mask and gloves to conceal his identity, approached from a hole in the parking lot perimeter fence. Saint-Louis confronted the ATM technician with a firearm, forcing him to his knees to wait out the robbery, while Saint-Louis moved the cash from the vault cassettes into a backpack. In total, Saint-Louis stole approximately $135,530 from the ATM.

As part of the FBI's investigation into the bank robberies, Saint-Louis was surveilled by deputies from Seminole County Sheriff's Office. On November 4, 2021, deputies observed Saint-Louis traveling to various bank locations in Seminole County. Deputies eventually stopped Saint-Louis, and during that traffic stop, they observed that Saint-Louis had a firearm inside his car with black tape covering its serial numbers, as well as several pieces of paper listing bank branch locations in Jacksonville. The listed bank branches were annotated with whether the ATM at each location was manufactured by Saint-Louis's former employer or by another company, along with other notes.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, and the Tallahassee Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rachel S. Lyons and Chauncey A. Bratt.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.