A New Haven man pleaded guilty Monday to a brazen 2013 Seymour bank robbery that caused a car chase on Route 8.
Daniel Hamlett Sr., 53, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson to a single count of armed robbery at federal court in Hartford.
Hamlett will likely be sentenced to a term between 92 and 115 months (roughly seven and a half to nine and a half years) of imprisonment, according to a plea agreement in the case.
Federal prosecutors said that on April 9, 2013, Hamlett drove a stolen vehicle to the Webster Bank on New Haven Road in Seymour.
“Wearing a mask, he exited the vehicle, approached an individual who was seated in his parked car, took out a handgun, smashed the driver’s side front window and demanded money from the victim,” federal prosecutors said in a prepared statement. “When the victim responded that he didn’t have any money, Hamlett took the victim’s car keys and cell phone and told him not to move.”
He then went into the bank, ordered everyone to the floor, jumped over the teller counter and took $5,594 cash from two teller drawers.
He left the bank, fleeing in the stolen vehicle, a Ford Taurus.
That set off a wild police chase, during which Hamlett initially drove north on Route 8 in the stolen Taurus, but ditched it in Beacon Falls, where his son, Daniel Hamlett Jr., was waiting with a red Toyota Prius.
Click the play button below to hear emergency radio dispatches as police hunted for the suspects. The audio has been edited, and is not in real time.
The pair drove south on Route 8 in the Prius, with cops picking up their trail in the area of exit 19 of Route 8 southbound, emergency radio dispatches indicated.
The vehicle got off the highway, with Ansonia and then Derby police becoming involved in the hunt for the car on city streets before losing the Prius in the area of Olivia Street in Derby about 3:15 p.m.
A sighting of the vehicle in the area of exit 13 of Route 8 in Shelton was reported about five minutes later, drawing Shelton police officers into the search. About five minutes after the car was spotted in Shelton it was seen on Route 8, going north, the vehicle’s last sighting.
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Hamlett Sr. was arrested in Georgia last November and has been behind bars since his arrest.
Judge Thompson scheduled his sentencing for Dec. 7.
Hamlett Jr. was arrested last March and pleaded guilty Oct. 31, 2014 to one count of aiding and abetting a bank robbery. He will likely be sentenced to between 46 and 57 months in prison, but has not yet been sentenced in the case.
This matter was investigated by the FBI and the Seymour Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas P. Morabito and Sarala V. Nagala.