Band-Aid Bandit Gets 149 Years In Prison

The serial bank robber known as the Band-Aid Bandit was sentenced to more than 149 years in prison Friday.

"It's a life sentence, and it should be," U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday said in giving Rafael Angel Rondon the maximum sentence of 149½ years for his role in six bank robberies.

Rondon, 47, got his nickname because he often wore a bandage to cover a distinctive mole on his face. Authorities said he was responsible for heists at 39 banks from Sarasota to Gainesville from 2000 through 2006, taking nearly $1 million.

He and his sidekick, brother-in-law Emeregildo Roman, 54, were prosecuted in April for six of the robberies. A jury convicted them of six counts of armed bank robbery, six counts of illegal use of a firearm and one count of conspiracy.

"The victims do not exaggerate the aggression with which Mr. Rondon conducted these offenses," Merryday said. "Some of the scenes that were depicted on the video surveillance will not only be in the minds of the victims, but in the mind of this judge as well."

After Rondon's arrest last July, agents found adhesive bandages, a distinctive silver .357-caliber revolver similar to the one used by the bandit and almost $90,000 in cash — some wads still wrapped in bank bands — in a search of his home in the Orlando suburb of Clermont, Fla.

More cash, disguises and a gun were found in Roman's house in Davenport.

The judge ordered both men to pay $676,000 in restitution. Roman was sentenced to more than 126 years' prison.