Providence Man Sentenced For 2021 Downtown Bank Robbery

PROVIDENCE, RI — A Providence man with a lengthy criminal history was sentenced to five years in federal prison for robbing a downtown bank in 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

Roldy Francois, 38, had been out of federal prison for less than six months after serving a twelve-year sentence when he walked into a downtown bank, brandished a toy gun and threatened to "shoot this place up," officials said.

Providence Police located Francois using GPS trackers concealed in a stack of cash handed over to Francois, and he was arrested after a brief foot pursuit. Among the items dropped by Francois and recovered by police was a toy handgun.

Francois isn't unfamiliar with courtrooms and jail cells. His nine previous criminal convictions include firearms, fraud, aggravated identity theft and domestic assault charges.

His 2021 arrest followed a 144-month term of incarceration imposed for his 2011 conviction on four counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm; one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number; four counts of making false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer in the acquisition of firearms; four counts of possession of an identification document with intent to defraud the United States; and four counts of aggravated identity theft.

Although prohibited from acquiring firearms by his 2007 conviction of felony domestic assault for stabbing his girlfriend in the leg, Francois illegally purchased five handguns using a stolen identity.

At the time of his arrest on these earlier charges, Francois pointed a handgun at U.S Marshals, causing a six-hour standoff with law enforcement prior to his being taken into custody, officials said.

Francois was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of federal supervised release – the first six months of supervised release to be served at a residential reentry center.