Yonkers resident Virginia Blanco has always proclaimed her innocence stemming from a bank robbery that occurred at a Wells Fargo Bank on Odell Avenue in Yonkers in 2013. Blanco was a bank teller and the ringleader of the bank robbery was her boyfriend at the time.
Despite these damaging pieces of the story, a White Plains Federal Judge who sentenced Blanco to 10 years in 2018 has allowed a motion to vacate Blanco’s sentence to proceed. While Blanco sits in Federal prison in Danbury, the three bank robbers, including her ex-boyfriend, Giovanni Marte, are out of jail after cooperating with the government to put Blanco away.
The motion, filed Pro-Se by Blanco, picks apart the governments case again against her, and also shows that her attorney at the time, Jon Silveri, did such a poor job that she deserves a new trial.
Blanco was accused by Giovanni Marte, of giving him inside information about the bank, the vault, and the branch manager. But according to the new motion, an employee from the bank who was present during the robbery wrote a statement that Marte didn’t know where the vault was or how to access the vault, or who the manager was. All three items are what Blanco was accused of providing to Marte to rob the bank, which let to her guilty conviction.
In addition to the fact that Blanco and Marte were together, another damning piece of evidence at the trial showed that the two took a trip to Arbua after the robbery. Marte testified that he paid for the vacation with cash that he stole during the bank heist, but according to the motion the trip was paid for online, where its impossible to pay for anything with cash.
Blanco provided her attorney Silveri with an online receipt but it wasn’t introduced as evidence.
The motion shows that Marte and the other bank robbers perjured themselves during the trial, when their testimony is compared to what they told the FBI during interviews.
Other inconsistencies include:
Giovanni Marte testified that at the trial that Blanco told him not to take money from the teller draws, or the ATM machine. But during his interview for a reduced sentence in exchange for a lenient sentence, called a proffer meeting, Marte said “I thought best not to take from drawers.”
Another one of the bank robbers, Jeffrey Martinez, who had 10 prior arrests, also agreed to testify against Blanco in exchange for a reduced sentence. Martinez claimed that he knew Blanco “from the neighborhood” but could not identify her from a photo lineup.
Marte fired two shots in the bank during the robbery. Blanco was accused of participating in the bank robbery even though she was not there during the time that it happened. And because shots were fired, she was given 10 years on the gun charge for the shots fired by her ex-boyfriend.
Andres Cruz the getaway driver, in a video recorded statement said that he was informed by Marte and Martinez that they had been casing the bank twelve months (Marte) and six months (Martinez). This supported Ms. Blanco’s claim of innocence as she had only started working in the bank three months before the robbery.
In another conversation recorded by a confidential informant, Martinez stated that there was no insider.
It has been established Marte has a propensity to lie. This has been pointed out by the government in their arguments multiple times. The only witness who identified Ms. Blanco as the insider was Marte.
Marte and Cruz committed bad acts prior to the bank robbery together. These acts consist of drug smuggling as Marte was involved in the distribution of narcotics from the Dominican Republic, according to the motion.
According to the motion, Cruz also told the FBI that he (Marte) had been scouting the place for about a year or so and he knew like where the guard was and what not and it had been robbed before because the highway is right there, so it makes it an easy target. So he had told me he scouted the place all around and he knew where all the cameras were and I just had to pop this U turn up the hill and wait for him in front of the bank.
FBI: Did G, Did G, say why he picked that bank?
Cruz: Just cause it had been robbed before, the highway was right there so all we had to do is get on the highway and soon as we get out of Yonkers it’s no longer their jurisdiction.
FBI: How did he know when the guard was working and all that stuff?
Cruz: He said he was scouting, ah, scouting it for a year.
FBI: Did he know somebody who worked there?
Cruz: I don’t know
According to the motion, Marte and Martinez had robbed another bank on Lockwood Avenue prior to the Odell robbery.
Blanco’s attorney, Mr. Siveri, did not interview Cruz and ask about the contradictions in their story to Marte’s story.
Marte testified that Blanco, “drew me a a blueprint of how the bank looks like in the inside and in the outside,” but other testimony found that Marte had to ask another bank employee, Mr. Khalil, to take him to the vault.
Khalil explained to Marte that he did not have access to the vault. A key and a combination is needed to access the vault. A coworker of Khalil’s told Marte he needed the combination to open the vault and the combination is kept by a manager.
Actually, Marte had no idea how to open the vault, according to the motion.
Marte also did not know who the manager was of the bank. Marte’s proffer notes and testimony allege Ms. Blanco made him aware of the physical description of the manager, but during the robbery, he asked Mr. Khalil to get a manager.
It was determined after the robbery that $300,000 was missing.
After the robbery, Martinez was interviewed by the Yonkers Police Department, where he testified that he knew Blanco “I have seen her around my neighborhood.” But Martinez was shown 35 photos and could not ID Blanco.
This fact was not brought out during the trial by Blanco’s attorney.
The fact that Marte was the main witness in the trial that put Virginia Blanco in prison for 10 years is suspect, when Marte’s wrap sheet, which has a history of guns, drugs and robberies, is reviewed.
“The Government cannot establish a solid time frame that the allegations took place nor can the Government provide any evidence that this actually took place. Ms. Blanco has proven that her defense counsel was deficient by not interviewing Raposo and others as well Ms. Blanco proves there was in fact materiel that could have been used effectively to discredit Marte,” states the motion.
Federal Court Judge Cathy Seibel, who sentenced Blanco to 10 years in prison, is the same judge that allowed the motion to continue to move forward.
“It’s a big deal. I don’t know what else you’ve got beside Mr. Marte on any of this and, you know, that’s also part of the problem, you know if they don’t believe Mr. Marte on the robbery, they’re not going to believe him on the drugs. And if they believe him on the one, they’re going to believe him on the other.
“The prejudicial effect of this drug evidence, denied by Ms. Blanco, having no relevance to the charges in the indictment cannot be underplayed. It portrayed Ms. Blanco, without a criminal record, who was working going to school, as a drug dealer affiliated with Marte as well as other drug dealers including Raposo the father of her son, and Pena, her cousin.
A hearing should be held on how the district court ruled on the 404(b) evidence and what research (Assistant US Attorney) Mr. Adelsberg was referring to and why it wasn’t turned over,” said Judge Seibel.
While we acknowledge that Virginia Blanco put herself, and her son, in a BAD situation by entering into a relationship with a person that was dealing drugs, using guns and robbing banks, that fact alone does not deserve her spending 10 years in jail.
When I read this motion, I thought about what I would do if I were on the jury and were presented with this evidence. My answer is, I would not have convicted Virginia Blanco of anything.
The government now has to respond to the motion by November 19. And the Judge will have to grant or deny a hearing and a new attorney for Virginia Blanco.
Another reason we write this story is because we printed a release from the US Attorney’s office back in 2019, detailing the charges against Blanco and her guilty conviction.
We write this follow up story, more than two years later, because we now have serious doubts about Virginia Blanco’s guilty.
