Woman sentenced for scheme to recruit on Instagram for California bank robberies
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal court sentenced Yasmin Millett for 2023 bank robbery in Suisun City.
- Millett and accomplices recruited Instagram users to commit bank robberies.
- Authorities linked group to several bank robberies across Northern California.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced an Oakland woman accused as one of the masterminds in a Northern California bank robbery scheme that included recruiting people on Instagram.
Chief U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley sentenced Yasmin Charisse Millett, 22, to two years and four months in prison for her role in the bank robberies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento announced in a news release.
In March, Millett pleaded guilty to a single count of bank robbery for a July 17, 2023, heist at the Credit Union 4 branch in Suisun City, according to the plea agreement prosecutors filed in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.
She faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the bank robbery charge, along with three years of parole and a $250,000 fine. At the March hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitnee Goins said the prosecution recommended the court sentence Millett to the “low end” of the applicable guidelines as determined by the court. The prosecution agreed to dismiss all remaining charges against Millett as part of her plea deal.
A federal grand jury in September indicted Millett; Dontae Jerome Jones Jr., 20; and JoMya Mauriyne Futch, 21, charging them with conspiracy to commit bank robbery and bank robbery, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in an Oct. 9 news release.
Prosecutors said Jones and Futch pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery on April 17 and are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office accused the defendants in a series of heists, including a 2023 bank robbery in Sacramento, in which primarily women were allegedly recruited on Instagram to hand notes demanding money to bank tellers.
From June 2023 through September 2024, Millett conspired with Jones to commit bank robberies, and Millett also conspired with Futch to commit at least two bank robberies, according to the prosecution’s factual basis attached to the filed plea agreement and signed by Millett. The alleged conspiracy targeted banks and credit unions.
On July 17, 2023, Jones, Millett and Futch used a stolen white Audi A7 with dark tinted windows to commit the bank robbery in Suisun City, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors allege that Millett gave Futch instructions on how to commit the bank robbery. Jones and Millett waited in the car while Futch entered the bank and handed a note to the credit union employee, demanding money and threatening to shoot the employee if they did not comply.
The credit union employee then handed the money to Futch, who returned to the waiting getaway car. Prosecutors allege Millett, Jones and Futch each took a portion of the stolen cash.
The following day, law enforcement officials pulled over the stolen white Audi A7 driven by Millett with Jones in the front passenger seat. No one else was in the car.
The filed factual basis said that law enforcement officials found Millett and Jones with bait money stolen from the Credit Union 4 branch in Suisun City. Cash with known serial numbers, also known as bait money, is used to help police track money stolen in bank robberies.
Law enforcement officials also found in the stolen car a crumpled Post-it note that had written on it “Don’t Make eye contact Don’t look suspicious Don’t Push emergency Button Put smile on your face or I will shoot.”
Jones and Millet were accused of being the masterminds of the bank robbery scheme and recruiting people to present notes demanding cash at banks, according to the Sept. 26 filed indictment. Millet stayed with Jones, who had lived in Northern California motels with no fixed address.
In addition to the Suisun City heist, prosecutors said Jones and Millett conspired to commit at least 10 bank robberies at eight credit unions and two banks in Sacramento, Vallejo, Benicia, Concord and Antioch and worked with others to carry out the robberies.
Jones and Millett “actively sought and groomed recruits,” including Futch, as “the note passers in the targeted” banks, according to the indictment. Millet allegedly advertised the bank robbery conspiracy in Instagram videos and photographs of herself and other participants holding large amounts of cash.
“Happy Money Makin(sic) Mondays! I got one spot left in a car tap in,” Millett allegedly wrote in the Instagram posts, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said Futch, of Richmond, was a recruit who voluntarily joined the conspiracy to act as a note passer on at least two occasions. The indictment alleged Jones and Millett sometimes directed recruits to wear dark sunglasses at the banks to conceal their identities and encouraged them to carry purses to hold the stolen cash as they left the bank and left in a waiting getaway vehicle.
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 3:37 PM.
