SACRAMENTO — Dominque Polani, who robbed a string of banks in Sacramento last year, received a six-year prison sentence from Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jaime Roman on Friday, March 25, 2016.
Polani, 23, pled for forgiveness in court and promised it would never happen again. However, Judge Roman was unmoved and still sentenced her to six years, telling her, “This does not have to define you for the rest of your life. This does not have to define who Dominique Polani is.”
In late February, she pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree robbery for banks she robbed on July 1, 9, 14, and 15, 2015, in Sacramento. These included Bank of the West, Citibank and Chase Bank locations in Carmichael, Rosemont, and the Arden Arcade area.
Throughout the case, Polani’s attorney Marcus Wiggins maintained that Polani’s boyfriend had coerced her into these robberies. “This was a gross example of being under the wrong person’s influence,” he told the court.
During the hold-ups, Polani wore no disguise and was not armed. She wore jeans, a baseball cap, and horned-rim glasses and handed the tellers a note (that she had not written) that demanded money.
Polani’s father, Joe, told the media last summer that his daughter got mixed up with the wrong crowd. “Other than that she is happy, likes to please people and always has a smile on her face.”
Her uncle, Anthony Polani, added that his niece “fell in love with the wrong dude.”
Investigators said tips on social media and bank surveillance cameras help them to arrest Polani last July near Bakersfield. Polani has been held at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove.
