Woman who robbed Monroe County bank dressed as nun is sentenced

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A Connecticut woman is headed to prison for her role in a monthlong crime spree in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including an attempted bank robbery in which she and another woman dressed as nuns.

Swahilis Pedraza-Rodriguez received a 15-month sentence Thursday.

The 20-year-old New Haven woman had pleaded guilty in June to robbing a bank in Garfield, New Jersey, while wearing a head covering and conspiring to steal money from an ATM at a bank in Scotrun.

Her co-defendant, 24-year-old Melisa Aquino Arias of Passaic, New Jersey, received a 37-month sentence Wednesday.

The pair were arrested last October, about two weeks after the Garfield robbery, when they went to a Teaneck bank and asked about opening an account.

An employee recognized them and called police.