A Nashua man who walked into a Citizens Bank branch on Main Street in June with a backpack, demanded cash and fled has pleaded guilty to unarmed bank robbery. Mario Monserrate Morgan, 41, entered the bank on June 9 carrying the backpack before approaching a teller, and police caught up with him roughly 10 minutes after he ran out the door.
According to court documents cited by WMUR, Morgan set the backpack on the counter and told the teller, “Put the money in the bag and don’t press any buttons,” a demand first reported by the Lowell Sun. The teller complied, and reports differ slightly on the exact haul: the Sentinel & Enterprise put the amount at $645, while WMUR's account described it as almost $650.
Morgan then fled the bank, but his getaway was short-lived. Police tracked him down about 10 minutes later, per the same WMUR account, and when officers searched his backpack, they reportedly found more than just stolen bills.
A Cap Gun Hidden in a T-Shirt
Inside the backpack, police found a cap gun wrapped in a blue T-shirt along with the $645 in cash, according to Patch. The discovery of the fake firearm has not altered the charge against him — prosecutors pursued the case as unarmed bank robbery, which the U.S. Department of Justice, District of New Hampshire confirmed Morgan pleaded guilty to.
The guilty plea closes out the criminal case over how Morgan took the money, even as the next phase of his prosecution still looms. As Boston 25 News reports, Morgan is scheduled for sentencing on January 26, 2027.
Decades in Prison Possible
Federal unarmed bank robbery carries steep statutory penalties, and Boston 25 News notes that Morgan faces up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release following any incarceration, and a fine of as much as $250,000. Those figures represent the maximum penalties allowed under the charge, not a predicted outcome, and his actual sentence will be determined at the January hearing.
For now, the case stands as a reminder of how quickly a bank robbery can unravel: a backpack, a scripted demand, a few hundred dollars and a cap gun — all undone within minutes by police who caught up with Morgan before he got far from the Main Street branch.
