Bank Robber Receives More Than 42 Years in Prison

A bank robber will spend the next four decades in prison.

35-year-old Graciano Pina Quezada of Albuquerque, New Mexico was sentenced Thursday to 42.5 years in federal prison for the armed robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank in Lubbock.

Quezada entered the Wells Fargo Bank near 50^th Street and Quaker Avenue on February 21^st of this year wearing a dark blue toboggan over his face with cut eye holes, a dark jacket and gloves.

He brandished a Ruger 9mm pistol and demanded money from the tellers. After receiving the money, Quezada escorted one of the customers at gunpoint to the bank doors.

Quezada escaped in a Ford Mustang, but within two minutes, Lubbock Police officers found him, embarking on a high-speed chase with Quezada, finally ending due to spike strips placed by a DPS trooper in Lynn County. He attempted to flee on foot, but was captured a short distance from his car.

On October 3^rd, 2011, Quezada pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.