news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A man convicted last week of robbing five Greensboro banks will spend at least the next 37 years in state prison.

A jury convicted Emmanuelle Dancy, 26, of five counts each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony conspiracy for his role in the series of “Bluetooth Bandits” robberies that terrorized several west Greensboro bank employees from 2006 to 2008.

“I can’t imagine what possessed you (to commit these robberies),” Superior Court Judge Brad Long told Dancy at the sentencing Tuesday morning. “You saw people come into this courtroom who were terrorized by your actions.”

Dancy’s trial, which wrapped up Friday, included testimony from employees of several banks he helped rob at gunpoint.

They told of guns being pointed in their faces as masked robbers stole money from tellers and out of bank vaults.

The group was dubbed the “Bluetooth Bandits” by the FBI because the robbers wore Bluetooth cell phone headpieces in the robberies. They could talk to their lookouts parked near the banks.

Dancy was one of six people involved in the hold-ups. Three co-defendants pleaded guilty and testified against him as part of a plea deal. They will be sentenced at a later date.

The group’s ringleader, Christopher Collins, was convicted earlier this year and sentenced to a minimum of 100 years in prison.

His girlfriend, Sabrina Phillips, was sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison following a conviction last year.

Dancy’s lawyer, Tom Maddox, told the court his client intends to appeal the conviction.

Dancy’s maximum sentence is 52 years in prison.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com