Apr 27, 2009 4:43 pm US/Pacific
Hold The Rice! 'Newlywed Bandits' Sentenced
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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Rayceana Racheal Rocha, the female half of a duo dubbed "the Newlywed Bandits."
CBS
The duo dubbed the "Newlywed Bandits" were sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to multi-year prison terms and the honeymoon seems to be over.
Rayceana Racheal Rocha, a 24-year-old former criminology student at Whittier's Rio Hondo Community College, received 51 months after pleading guilty to three counts related to the robberies.
Her then-boyfriend, 27-year-old ex-con Paul Harlen Meyerkamp Jr., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts to 78 months in federal
prison on the five counts to which he pleaded guilty.
Authorities said the two robbed five banks in a three-week period in 2007.
At their Christmas Eve 2007 arraignment, Rocha and Meyerkamp shared romantic gazes into each other's eyes and smiled a lot. The couple -- though unmarried -- were christened the "Newlywed Bandits" by an FBI agent.
Today, as the couple sat, separated by an attorney, no gazes, no smiles.
In fact, Meyerkamp told the judge he hadn't seen or talked to Rocha "for some time." Rocha glanced in his direction just once -- as he apologized to
"everyone I've hurt."
During their capers, authorities said they made off with more than $14,000.
Rocha told the judge she has a 4-year-old daughter. "I will never put anything -- no drug, no man -- before her again."
Along with the prison terms, Letts ordered the exes to pay restitution to the banks in the amounts of $12,000 for Rocha and $9,900 for Meyerkamp.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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