KAILUA-KONA — A 30-year-old Big Island man will spend five years in federal prison for robbing the American Savings Bank branch in Kealakekua, spurring a day-long manhunt earlier this year. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — A 30-year-old Big Island man will spend
KAILUA-KONA — A 30-year-old Big Island man will spend five years in federal prison for robbing the American Savings Bank branch in Kealakekua, spurring a day-long manhunt earlier this year.
Russell R. Monlux, 30, was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release — of which six months must be served within a residential re-entry center, by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway on Sept. 11 in Honolulu. Monlux was also ordered to pay restitution of $6,650 to American Savings Bank and a $100 fine.
Federal Public Defender Alex Silvert, Monlux’s attorney, said on Thursday that his client does not plan to appeal the sentence as it came in below the sentencing guideline range. Monlux pleaded guilty to the single federal count of bank robbery by force or violence after he had been found fit to stand trial following a competency and insanity evaluation.
Monlux entered the American Savings Bank branch in Kealakekua around 3 p.m. Jan. 3 and passed a threatening note that demanded money and said he had a gun, according to an affidavit in support of the federal charges filed shortly after the incident. That note was also signed by Monlux and matched the signature on his driver’s license.
The next day, after receiving a tip from the public, police and federal agents arrested Monlux inside the north terminal of Kona International Airport.
According to an affidavit filed shortly after his arrest, Monlux had spent time at the Kona Community Hospital psychiatric ward before being released the morning of Jan. 3. The affidavit also states that surveillance video from the hospital on Dec. 30 showed Monlux wearing an identical T-shirt to the one worn during the robbery. The hospital is located about a 1/2 mile north of the bank branch off Mamalahoa Highway.
Prior to the January incident, Monlux had been arrested in June 2016 for allegedly passing a handwritten bomb threat to a teller at the Bank of Hawaii branch inside the Hilo Safeway store, after which he was charged with two counts of terroristic threatening. Those charges were dropped after a judge found him unfit to proceed based on an evaluation by the state Department of Health.
