SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 14, 2026 — A Texas man was sentenced to prison after his ATM-robbing ways caught up with him in Utah.
Jawuan Donte Thomas, 23, earned a 57-month prison tour after pleading guilty to charges after attempted robberies of ATMs in Utah and a completed ATM robbery in Cincinnati, Ohio, Utah’s federal prosecutors said in a press release shared by the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office.
Thomas was also ordered to pay $205,080 in restitution for the Ohio robbery in the sentence imposed last week by Senior U.S. District Court for Utah Judge Tena Campbell.
According to court documents and statements made at Thomas’s change of plea and sentencing hearings, Thomas attempted to rob a bank ATM in Riverton on Dec. 17, 2024.
“Thomas admitted that prior to the attempted robbery, he and two co-conspirators jammed the ATM, knowing it would cause the machine to malfunction and require the bank to call a technician to repair it,” according to the Department of Justice prosecutors for Utah, describing the same technique Thomas employed in Ohio.
Thomas admitted to waiting in a car near the ATM and watching for the technician to arrive. Upon the technician’s arrival, Thomas and his co-conspirators drove up quickly to the ATM and Thomas jumped out of the vehicle and demanded the money.
But, officials said, because Thomas and his co-conspirators had jammed another ATM in Draper earlier in the day, FBI agents were staged near the Riverton location in anticipation of a potential robbery.
“As Thomas approached the ATM technician, FBI agents closed in to thwart the robbery.” He attempted to flee on foot but was captured immediately. His co-conspirators fled in the vehicle.
While this case was pending, the U.S. District of Utah learned of the similar case in Ohio, that Thomas and two others had been charged in the Southern District of Ohio with bank robbery.
Thomas agreed that the Ohio case should be transferred to Utah for disposition. On May 12 of this year Thomas entered a guilty plea to bank robbery, admitting that he and his co-conspirators successfully robbed an ATM in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area utilizing the same strategy they had employed in Utah. He pleaded guilty to the Utah charges on June 26.
Thomas and his co-conspirators stole over $205,000 in the Ohio robbery. The money has not been recovered.
The case was investigated by an FBI Task Force officer from the South Jordan Police Department along with the Riverton City Police Department and Ohio’s Springfield Township Police Department.
