Serial bank robber sentenced to prison

BANK ROBBERIES LINKED TO SUSPECT

1. Jan. 2: PNC Bank, 7841 Old Troy Pike, Huber Heights. Woman wearing dark puffy coat and scarf handed a teller a note around noon. No weapon was displayed. Suspect left in silver car.
2. Jan. 5: Union Savings Bank, 1040 E. Second St., Franklin. Woman wearing dark coat, scarf handed a teller a note shortly before 10 a.m. No weapon was displayed. Suspect left in black sedan.
3. Jan. 7: Fifth Third Bank, 3830 Linden Ave., Dayton. Woman wearing dark coat and scarf handed a teller a note around 4 p.m. No weapon was displayed. Suspect left in a brown car.
4. Jan. 22: Fifth Third Bank. 3830 Linden Ave., Dayton. Woman wearing dark coat and scarf handed note to teller around 3:30 p.m. No weapon displayed. Suspect left in waiting car.

Serial bank robber Christina Porter was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday morning.

Feb. 12:

A suspected serial bank robber has been indicted.

Christina Porter, 32, was indicted today on two counts of robbery, aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges by a Montgomery County grand jury.

She is accused of robbing four banks, including the same Fifth Third Bank branch twice at 3830 Linden Ave. in the Eastown Shopping Center in Dayton.

She has not been formally charged in the other two heists: one Jan. 2 at a PNC Bank in Huber Heights and Jan. 5 at Union Savings Bank in Franklin.

Porter was arrested Jan. 22 at a bingo hall in the Eastown Shopping Center after she allegedly held up the bank. She remains held in lieu of $100,000 bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

UPDATE @ 11:40 p.m. (Jan. 30):

The case against suspected serial bank robber Christina Porter will now go to a Montgomery County grand jury to review.

Porter, 32, waived her a preliminary hearing today, so a Dayton Municipal Court judge sent her case directly to Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Her bond was continued at $100,000 cash to get out of the Montgomery County Jail, where she is being held on two felony robbery charges and for a possible parole violation, online jail records show.

UPDATE @ 3:45 p.m. (Jan. 26):

Christina Porter was arraigned today in Dayton Municipal Court.

Bond was set at $100,000, and court records show her preliminary hearing is Jan. 30.

Jan. 22

A woman suspected of robbing four banks this month was caught today after striking the same bank for a second time, police said.

Christina N. Porter, 32, was arrested late this afternoon at a bingo hall in the Easttown Shopping Center.

She is accused of robbing the nearby Fifth Third Bank branch, 3830 Linden Ave., around 3:30 p.m. She was booked into the Montgomery County Jail on suspicion of two counts of felony robbery, online jail records show.

Dayton police Sgt. Moises Perez said the suspect slipped a teller a note that read: “You’re gonna get hurt if you don’t give me the money.” She did not display a weapon, he said.

The teller handed over the cash, but hid a dye pack, which started smoking after she left the bank, Perez said.

A woman who unwittingly was used as the getaway driver said she immediately knew the bank had been robbed after the suspect ran out and smoke was coming from inside her purse.

The woman, who would only identify herself as Mary, said the suspect approached her at a nearby laundromat and offered to pay for a ride, with a stop first at the bank.

“She ran in real quick, came out, got in my car with her purse … the dye pack started smoking. She got out … started walking toward the bus hub,” the woman said, adding she was grateful the suspect got out of her car without a confrontation.

The suspect went to another part of the Eastown Shopping Center and reportedly was trying to discard evidence before she was nabbed at the bingo hall.

Police said the suspect is the woman who robbed the same bank on Jan. 7, and also is linked to two other heists Jan. 5 at Union Savings Bank in Franklin and Jan. 2 at PNC Bank in Huber Heights.

In all four bank robberies, the suspect wore a dark coat and partially covered her face with a scarf. In each case, a note was handed to a teller demanding money and no weapon was displayed.