Three Bay Area defendants have pleaded guilty in federal court to a series of bank robberies in Solano County, elsewhere in the East Bay and in Sacramento.

Dontae Jerome Jones Jr., 20, and JoMya Mauriyne Futch, 21, each pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of bank robbery, and Futch pleaded guilty to one count of perjury, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith said in a press statement.

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On March 13, co-defendant Yasmin Charisse Millett, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery, added Beckwith, who leads the DOJ’s Eastern District of California in Sacramento.

According to court documents, between June 2023 and September 2024, Jones and Millett conspired to commit at least 10 bank robberies in Vallejo, Benicia, Suisun City, Concord, Antioch and Sacramento.

Jones and Millett worked together and with others, primarily women they recruited, such as Futch, “to facilitate a patterned series of bank robberies,” according to wording in the prepared statement.

The participants drove to bank and credit union branches, entered the branches with threatening notes demanding money, presented the notes to branch employees, took cash, and exited the branches to a waiting getaway car. Generally, the notes would instruct the bank employees to provide money or “I will kill everyone in here.” After a successful robbery, the members of the conspiracy distributed the stolen money among themselves.

Jones and Millett actively sought and groomed recruits to act as the note passers. Millett advertised the conspiracy on Instagram in videos and photographs of herself and other participants holding large amounts of cash. Jones and Millett sometimes directed recruits to wear dark sunglasses during the robberies to conceal their identities and carry purses in order to carry the stolen money away from the banks and credit unions.

Beckwith noted that on July 17, 2023, Jones and Millett used a stolen white Audi A7 with dark tinted windows to pick up Futch and commit a bank robbery at a credit union in Suisun City. Jones and Millett provided Futch with instructions on how to commit the robbery. Jones and Millett waited in the vehicle while Futch entered the bank and handed an employee a note demanding money, threatening to shoot the employee if the employee did not comply with the demand. After reading the note, the employee gave Futch money. Futch returned to the waiting getaway vehicle and Jones, Millett, and Futch each took a portion of the stolen money.

The next day, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of the stolen white Audi A7. Millett was driving the stolen car and Jones was the front seat passenger. During the traffic stop, law enforcement officers found bait money on Millett and Jones from the bank robbery that occurred the day before in Suisun City. The officers also found a crumpled Post-it demand note on the driver’s seat that stated, “Don’t Make eye contact Don’t look suspicious Don’t Push emergency Button Put smile on your face or I will shoot.”

On Aug. 15, 2024, Futch appeared as a witness under oath before a grand jury “and knowingly made false statements,” according to Beckwith.

During her testimony, Futch stated that on July 17, 2023, she believed that she was going to open up a bank account for Millett — not commit a robbery. Futch “further claimed that she had no clue that she was committing a bank robbery,” and maintained throughout her testimony that she did not know about any plan to commit a bank robbery, Beckwith noted in the statement.

However, these statements were false, she added, because Millett informed Futch about her plans to commit a bank robbery in the days leading up to July 17, 2023, and Futch had agreed to commit bank robberies with Millett and Jones.

The case stems from an investigation by FBI field offices in San Francisco and Sacramento, with assistance from police departments in Vacaville, Vallejo, Benicia, Suisun City, Antioch, Concord, Hayward, Fremont, and Sacramento; the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, and the California Highway Patrol.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitnee Goins leads the prosecution.

Chief U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley is scheduled to sentence Jones and Futch on Aug. 7 in Sacramento, when and where they face a maximum prison term of 20 years and a $250,000 fine for the bank robbery conviction. Futch faces a maximum penalty of five years and a $250,000 fine for her perjury conviction.

The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the court’s discretion and federal sentencing guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.