Former UA student convicted of bank robbery

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Photo Courtesy of Pima County Attorney's Office This image, caught on security cameras, shows former UA student Anthony L. Pellegrini robbing the Bank One at 4660 E. Sunrise Drive last April. Pellegrini, 20, was found guilty Friday of armed robbery and other charges in connection with three robberies of area banks.

A Pima County jury convicted a former UA student on armed robbery and other charges Friday in connection with two holdups during an aggressive bank-robbing spree that began last February.

Former political science freshman Anthony L. Pellegrini, now 20, was found guilty of four counts of armed robbery, two counts of theft by control, and six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for bank robberies occurring Feb. 28, 1997, and April 18, 1997, said Deputy County Attorney Daniel Nicolini.

Although Pellegrini was arrested in connection with three, not two, robberies, the jury failed to reach a verdict relating to a Feb. 11 robbery at a Bank One branch, 4398 N. Campbell Ave.

Nicolini said the evidence against Pellegrini was too great to consider defense claims that he was framed by two coworkers at a Tucson security agency.

Pellegrini's testimony was a "ridiculous scenario invented to fit the facts in evidence," Nicolini said.

"He's gotten himself into a box that he can't escape from," Nicolini told the jury during closing arguments June 2.

Nicolini said the three robberies all were committed in the same manner: a masked and wigged robber, using a dual pistol-grip shotgun, ordered customers to the ground and then robbed the tellers.

The robber took about $36,000 from the three crimes combined, Nicolini said.

According to court records, it was during the April 18 heist that a witness saw the robber run out of the bank and jump into a late model Chevy Camaro registered to Pellegrini.

The witness, who was leaving the building, testified that Pellegrini, armed with a shotgun, tried to rob him before going into the bank. The witness then watched the bank from a distance and recorded the getaway car's license plate number.

Nicolini said the witness identified Pellegrini in court as the robber, an assertion later disputed by defense attorney John Seamon, who said identification would have been difficult because the gunman covered his head with a wig and a blue bandanna.

Seamon argued several witnesses gave different descriptions of the gunman and later questioned some aspects of detectives' investigation and interrogation of Pellegrini.

Seamon added the trial had been a "very difficult, emotional experience.

"I met Tony's family, and he's a good kid," he said. "It's difficult to imagine that a kid like this could do such a thing."

Pima County Sheriff's deputies arrested Pellegrini on the day of the third robbery in his room at Corleone Apartments, 1330 N. Park Ave.

Deputies also located the getaway car at the home of a Pellegrini acquaintance, who testified that she bought the Camaro from the former UA student and had let him borrow it at times, including the day of the April 18 robbery at a Bank One branch, 4660 E. Sunrise Drive.

Nicolini said authorities searched another of Pellegrini's vehicles - a 1992 Acura purchased about a week after the first robbery on a $5,000 down payment - and discovered the shotgun, $5,847 stashed in three different locations and the license plates used on the getaway car.

Seamon countered that the money had been obtained through winnings from frequent Las Vegas trips.

Nicolini added that Pellegrini's checking account showed that he had spent more than $9,000 between Feb. 11 and his arrest in April, tying that to the former UA student's testimony of being a "heavy" gambler.

"My theory is, Anthony Pellegrini, like a lot of young men, went off to college and became a wild man," Nicolini said. "Anthony came here to Tucson and started robbing banks, and Anthony was successful - wildly successful."

Nicolini added that Pellegrini was weeping as he was taken into custody, and faces a minimum of seven to 21 years in prison when he is sentenced July 1.