Robber Sentenced, Another Convicted

A Simi Valley woman was sentenced on bank fraud charges and another woman was convicted of bank robbery charges in two Ventura County cases this week, FBI officials said.

Eleanor Cesar, 34, of Simi Valley was sentenced Tuesday to four months in jail, to be followed by five years’ probation, and ordered to repay the money she stole from Home Federal Bank in Westlake Village, said Gary Auer, in charge of the FBI’s regional office.

Home Fed Bank officials referred Cesar’s case to the FBI in March, 1993, Auer said. Cesar, a teller at the bank, withdrew money from accounts of bank customers and illegally cashed checks for deposit between June, 1990, and November, 1992, Auer said. Altogether, she took about $43,300 for her own use, Auer said.

In another case, 19-year-old Shonte Lynn McKinzie of Los Angeles was convicted on bank robbery charges after a three-day trial that ended Tuesday.

McKinzie was the getaway driver in a Ventura bank robbery that occurred in January, Auer said.

After two of McKinzie’s partners robbed the Bank of America branch at 2698 E. Main St., the three briefly escaped to Fillmore before Curtis Eugene Smith was hit by a tractor-trailer rig, Auer said.

McKinzie, who is scheduled to be sentenced July 21, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $5,000 fine, Auer said. Smith is healing from his injuries and will be charged with bank robbery when he recovers, Auer said.

The third person in the robbery was convicted in Ventura County Superior Court. His name was not released because he is a juvenile.