NEWARK, N.J. — A Connecticut woman is headed to prison for her role in a month-long crime spree in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including an attempted bank robbery in which she and another woman dressed as nuns.
Swahilys Pedraza-Rodriguez received a 15-month sentence Thursday. The 20-year-old New Haven woman had pleaded guilty in June to robbing a bank in Garfield, New Jersey, while wearing a head covering and conspiring to steal money from an ATM at a bank in Scotrun, Pennsylvania.
Her co-defendant, 24-year-old Melisa Aquino Arias of Passaic, New Jersey, received a 37-month sentence Wednesday.
The pair were arrested last October, about two weeks after the Garfield robbery, when they went to a Teaneck bank and asked about opening an account. An employee recognized them and called police.