Bank robber who threatened to bomb West Side PNC branch gets 8 years in prison

A homeless man who threatened to bomb a Humboldt Park bank during a 2016 robbery was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for that hold-up and two others.

Cayetano Williams, 58, was sentenced March 15 to 102 months in prison for three counts of bank robbery, according to FBI spokeswoman Janine L. Wheeler. His sentence also includes three years of supervised release and requires him to pay $3,337.96 in restitution and a $200 assessment.

He pleaded guilty to all three counts on Oct. 19, 2017, according to federal court records

Williams was charged in January 2017 with holding up a PNC Bank branch at 3337 W. North Ave. on Dec. 15, 2016, and a Byline Bank branch at 2201 W. Cermak Road on Jan. 4, 2017, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

During the PNC robbery, Williams told a teller he would bomb the bank if the teller called for help, prosecutors said. He made off with $536.95. In the Byline Bank robbery, he implied he had a gun and got away with $1,020.

He was later charged with a third count of bank robbery for a hold-up on Dec. 8, 2016, at a Huntington Bank branch at 4012 N. Pulaski Road, according to the FBI.

Investigators matched surveillance images with previous arrest mugshots and tracked down a probation officer for Williams, who has a previous federal conviction, authorities said. The officer identified Williams in a photo lineup, as did several of the bank tellers.

FBI agents learned he had stayed at a Cicero motel and eventually tracked down Williams at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, the complaint says. He had booked the motel room under his own name and left his Social Security card inside the room when he left.

Williams is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.