GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man who robbed a Kalamazoo bank and then dropped $2,000 at a nearby strip club has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison for the mid-February heist.
Daniel A. Solis pocketed about $7,000 in the Feb. 12 hold-up at a Chase Bank branch in downtown Kalamazoo. He told police he then went to Angels Gentlemen’s Club and spent approximately $2,000.
Solis, 28, was arrested the next day. He “admitted to passing a demand note and admitted to taking cash from the bank and putting it into the backpack he wore,’’ federal court records show. “Solis said he spent approximately $2,000 of the cash at a strip club.’’
Solis told police he researched committing a bank robbery on the internet, wrote a demand note on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital stationary and parked the getaway car in a nearby alley, which was caught on video.
Solis said he wanted to experience firsthand what it was like to rob a bank, court records show.
In addition to prison, a federal judge in Grand Rapids on Friday, Sept. 18 ordered Solis to pay $7,038 in restitution. Solis also has to serve three years on supervised release once he gets out of prison.
The bank robbery isn’t the only criminal matter hanging over his head.
“Solis admitted to aiding and abetting the sexual assault of a 2-year-old boy with his ex-girlfriend,’’ federal court records show. “Law enforcement found videos of the sexual assaults and Solis confessed to aiding and abetting in the production of child pornography.’’
In a sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Mekaru wrote that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington “is preparing to bring charges.’’
“Solis’s conduct is not ‘a marked deviation by the defendant from an otherwise law-abiding life,’’’ Mekaru wrote. “Solis is responsible for a pattern of predation on children.’’
Solis had sex with a 14-year-old girl who was a decade younger than him and “participated in the sexual assault of a 2-year-old and the memorialization of the assault on video,’’ Mekaru wrote. “Solis’s life is not one of abidance.’’
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