Greenbelt, Maryland - The United States Attorney for Maryland announced that Quinita Jessie Ennis, age 30, of Lexington Park, Maryland, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, armed bank robbery and making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, in connection with the September 24, 2008 robbery of $169,900 from a bank in St. Mary’s County in which the bank manager and her two minor children were kidnapped from their residence in Calvert County.

According to her guilty plea, Ennis started a relationship in 2005 with a conspirator, Joseph Franklin Brown Jr,, who prosecutors say earned his living by selling illegal drugs. Ennis knew of her boyfriend’s illegal business and that he was a convicted felon, prohibited from possessing a gun. On June 20, 2008, at her boyfriend’s request and using his money, Ennis bought a 9 mm rifle from a gun shop in Lexington Park. She falsely represented that she was the actual purchaser of the rife, when in fact she knew she was purchasing the rifle on behalf of Brown. Prosecutors say that Ennis gave Brown the rifle.

In the summer of 2008, as Brown’s income from selling drugs dwindled, likely due to increased enforcement by the joint Maryland State Police and St. Mary’s Sheriff’s narcotics officers which have locked up dozens of drug dealers in the past two years, Brown evidently thought it was time to make a different kind of crime pay for him.

Prosecutors say that Brown and another conspirator, William Cordell Johnson, devised a plan to rob a bank in California, Maryland. Ennis participated in the discussions and agreed to assist in the robbery. Prior to September 24, Ennis admitted that she, Brown and Johnson observed the whereabouts of the bank’s manager, determining the time and route the manager used to leave her minor children in the care of another, and the procedures used by bank employees to open the bank.

On September 24, 2008, Ennis used her car to drive her conspirators to the bank manager’s residence. She knew that her conspirators were armed. Her conspirators, wearing masks and camouflage clothing, and brandishing the 9 mm rifle Ennis had purchased, kidnapped the manager and her two minor children, and drove the family to the PNC Bank at Esperanza shopping center located on Rt. 235 in California, in St. Mary’s County in the manager’s 2007 Tahoe. Ennis kept in touch with her conspirators by cell phone. Her boyfriend got out of the vehicle in California, Maryland, and Ennis picked him up.

According to the plea agreement, Ennis told prosecutors that Johnson ordered the manager to drive to the bank and obtain funds from the bank, while the conspirator held the manager’s minor son hostage in her vehicle. The manager’s daughter was released. Johnson took $169,900 from the bank manager and forced the manager to drive him to Green Holly School located just a half mile from the bank on Millstone Landing Road, where the manager and her son were released. Johnson then drove the manager’s vehicle to the CVS drug store located on Rt. 235 in California, Maryland where he abandoned the vehicle. Ennis and Brown then picked him up and Ennis drove them back to her Brown’s house located on Indian Bridge Road. Ennis received approximately $30,000 of the stolen bank funds, which she stored in a safe at her home as she apparently didn’t trust banks.

Later that evening, according to Ennis’s statement to the court, Ennis, Brown, Johnson and Edwin Jonathan Jones, traveled to casinos in New Jersey carrying tens of thousands of dollars from the bank robbery. Subsequently, Ennis made plans to resettle with her boyfriend in North Carolina. Also, on October 1, 2008, Ennis gave cash to a friend who agreed to purchase plane tickets for Ennis and her conspirators to travel to Las Vegas. At her boyfriend’s request, Ennis went to the Wal-Mart located on Rt. 235 in California and wired $9,000 in stolen bank robbery funds to her boyfriend in North Carolina.

Police searched Brown’s home on October 3, 2008. Alerted to the police activity, Ennis removed the remainder of her share of the stolen funds from her safe and kept it in her purse when she went to work. When police arrived to speak to Ennis, they found approximately $16,105 in cash in her purse. Ennis was arrested.

Ennis faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy; 25 years in prison for bank robbery; and 10 years in prison for making false statements in purchasing the rifle. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow has scheduled sentencing for March 30, 2009 at 11:30 a.m.