Ryan M. Messina, the Methuen man alleged to have commandeered a car at gunpoint and robbed a bank in Haverhill last June, was sentenced Tuesday in Essex County Superior Court to not less than five and years and six months in state prison.
Messina, 37, voluntarily changed his plea to guilty on four counts—intimidate to steal from a depository, larceny over $1,200, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and receiving a stolen vehicle. He was sentenced by Judge Kathleen McCarthy-Neyman and was given credit for 324 days already served in the Essex County House of Correction in Middleton.
Upon release, the judge ordered, he faces three years’ probation, ordered to submit to mental health evaluations and treatment as directed by his probation officer, ordered not to consume alcohol or illegal drugs and to submit to random drug testing. He will also have to wear at GPS monitoring device.
As WHAV reported in June, Essex County Assistant District Attorney Olivia Brooks said Messina ordered a person out of a white Honda CRV in Lawrence shortly after noon, Monday, June 2, 2025. He is alleged to have driven to the Westgate branch of Pentucket Bank, 395 Lowell Ave., in Haverhill, put on a mask and sunglasses and handed the teller a note demanding $10,000. He was given the cash and left the bank in the same car. Brooks said security cameras caught the stolen vehicle entering and leaving the bank’s parking lot.
Haverhill Police detectives with the assistance of the Massachusetts State Police, FBI and Methuen Police located Messina near his home the next day.