Methuen Bank Robber Receives 11-Year Prison Sentence

A Salem, N.H. man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston to more than 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to committing six armed bank robberies in the Merrimack Valley during 2013.

Rafael Beamud Jr., 34, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper on six counts of armed robbery and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of his crimes.

Beamud approached a Methuen TD Bank teller Feb. 21, 2013, brandishing a firearm, and ordered the teller to empty the cash drawers, making sure there was no “dye pack” put into plastic bags that he provided. He threatened to shoot if an alarm was tripped. The teller placed the money from the drawers into one of the plastic bags and Beamud left the bank, leaving one of the plastic bags behind. The bag was processed for fingerprints which led to Beamud’s identification. He was arrested in April, 2013, and he confessed to committing a number of armed robberies across three New England states, including Massachusetts.

He is also facing additional armed robbery charges in New Hampshire.

The charge of armed robbery provides a sentence of no greater than 25 years in prison, five years supervised release and $250,000 fine on each count. The charge of brandishing a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence provides for a mandatory minimum term of seven years in prison with no greater than a lifetime in prison, five years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. In this case, the parties signed a plea agreement agreeing to incarceration for 141 months to be followed by five years of supervised release.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eve A. Piemonte of Carmen M. Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit. Assistance was provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration; Salem, N.H., North Andover, Dracut, and Methuen Police Departments; and the Massachusetts State Police.