SNOW HILL — One of two Pennsylvania men arrested last July in connection with the robbery of the PNC Bank on Route 50 in West Ocean City was indicted last week in federal court for his role in a spree of armed robberies in Pennsylvania and in Worcester, while the second has been convicted here and awaits his fate pending the outcome of a pre-sentence investigation.
One of the suspects, Dale Mentzer, 35, of Newmanstown, Pa., was found guilty in Worcester County Circuit Court of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and two counts of theft from $1,000 to under $10,000. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered and a sentencing date has not been set.
Heath Derizzo, 36, of Harrisburg, Pa., Mentzer’s alleged co-conspirator in the robbery spree in Pennsylvania and West Ocean City last July, had the charges against him in Worcester County dropped last week when it was determined he would be charged in U.S. District Court.
Worcester County Assistant State’s Attorney Abigail Marsh said this week the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office has been working with federal prosecutors since the beginning to determine the optimum course of action for prosecuting Mentzer and Derizzo and the appropriate venue. The decision was reached to charge Mentzer in Worcester initially, and indict Derizzo, who is cooperating with the feds in U.S. District Court.
“It’s fairly easy to prosecute the guy on the camera, but it’s not as easy to prosecute the guy in the getaway car,” she said. “I collaborated with the federal prosecutor to make a determination on which one of these suspects was more dangerous. We determined that Mentzer posed the greater risk to the community.”
As a result, the decision was made to try Mentzer in Worcester for the West Ocean City bank robbery on July 23 to gain a conviction and hold him behind bars. Derizzo went directly to the federal prosecutors as a cooperator with the state and was indicted last week in U.S. District Court for his role in the robbery spree last summer.
Mentzer and Derizzo allegedly began their spree last July 19 with the robbery of a farm store in rural Pennsylvania and the list of holdups they have been connected to includes five banks and two markets or farm stores or nurseries including the PNC Bank in West Ocean City on July 23. Shortly after 9 a.m. last July 23, unidentified suspects entered the PNC Bank branch on Route 50 and demanded money and then fled the scene. No injuries were reported, nor were any weapons displayed. Early on in the investigation, with the help of media and social networks circulating surveillance images of the suspects, a possible connection was developed to a series of bank robberies in Pennsylvania the week before.
Later that same night, Derizzo and Mentzer were located in a motel room in Salisbury and were taken into custody without further incident.
Search warrants were issued and executed on the motel room in Salisbury where Derizzo and Mentzer were found and arrested and evidence was collected connecting them to the West Ocean City bank robbery earlier that day. The investigation revealed Derizzo was also wanted by the Pennsylvania State Police on an outstanding warrant for parole violations and additional charges for robbery. Mentzer was also wanted in Pennsylvania for an outstanding arrest warrant for armed robbery.
According to court records, the robbery spree began a few days earlier in Pennsylvania when Mentzer and Derizzo allegedly began the holdups to finance a crack cocaine binge they had been on for weeks.
A cooperating witness close to the pair told police from late June through July 23, Derizzo and Mentzer, longtime friends, were on a crack cocaine binge. The witness told police at numerous times during binge, Derizzo and Mentzer ran out of money, but would borrow her vehicle and return a short time later with large quantities of cash.
On July 19, Derizzo and Mentzer entered a farm stand in Northhampton County, Pa. and brandished a gun and demanded money from the clerk, who was working alone.
About 10 minutes after that incident, Derizzo allegedly entered the National Penn Bank about three miles from the farm stand and handed the teller a note demanding money. The teller gave Derizzo roughly $4,630 in cash and Derizzo fled on foot. Surveillance footage captured at the bank clearly depicts Derizzo, who was not wearing a mask and had the same distinctive tattoos seen on surveillance footage from the PNC Bank robbery in West Ocean City a week later.
The cooperating witness told investigators she was with Mentzer and Derizzo before and after the incidents on July 19 in Pennsylvania. She told police Mentzer and Derizzo said they were going to “go to work.” They returned several hours later and split a large sum of cash among themselves. The cooperating witness told police the two suspects admitted they had robbed the farm stand and Mentzer bragged about pointing the gun at the female victim and ordering her to take off her clothes.