Crime & Safety

Man Implicated in Fair Lawn Bank Robbery Jailed in Alabama

A man implicated in a number of bank robberies, including one in Fair Lawn last year, has been arrested in Mobile, Ala.

A man implicated in the last July was sentenced Tuesday to 70 months in jail for a subsequent bank robbery he confessed to committing in Alabama, Patch has learned.

James Raymond Jacobs, of Morrisville, Pa., was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and obstruction of justice on Aug. 9, after police said he robbed an RBC Bank in Mobile, Ala. and then led them on a brief chase before crashing his vehicle, according to a report in the Mobile Press-Register.

Jacobs plead guilty to the Mobile bank robbery on Nov. 15, and was sentenced Tuesday to serve just under six years in jail. Records indicate that Jacobs had been incarcerated in Mobile County Jail since his arrest back in August while awaiting sentencing.

Find out what's happening in Fair Lawn-Saddle Brookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In November, the Press-Register reported that in addition to the bank robbery in Mobile, Jacobs had been implicated, but not charged in, three bank robberies in other states.

Newark FBI spokesman Bryan Travers confirmed that one of the robberies in which Jacobs had been implicated was the July bank robbery in Fair Lawn, but he could not provide any details on Jacobs’ prosecution.

Find out what's happening in Fair Lawn-Saddle Brookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Our charges were sent over there,” Travers said. “He’s being prosecuted in Alabama.”

Tommy Loftis, a spokesman for the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama, could not immediately confirm whether Jacobs had been tried for all of the bank robberies in which he'd been implicated, but said it was highly unlikely.

"I would absolutely almost be positive when I say that we would not have prosecuted him on bank robberies that occurred in other states becaue we don’t have jurisdiction," Loftis said.

Loftis said it's possible Jacobs could be moved to each of the jurisdictions where he faces charges to stand trial there, but that his office had nothing to suggest that was being planned.

The Fair Lawn bank robbery in which Jacobs is implicated occurred just before 1 p.m. on July 2 at the , located at 21-01 Fair Lawn Ave.

At the time, police reports indicated that a white male with a stubble beard wearing eyeglasses, a navy blue cap, a navy blue shirt and khaki pants, held up the bank and fled the scene on foot. He did not show a weapon.

Press-Register reports from November indicate that when Jacobs allegedly hit the Chase Bank in Fair Lawn, he was already on the run from authorities in Pennsylvania, where he had not reported to a halfway house after being released from prison.

In an interview with the Press-Register, Jacobs' attorney, Buzz Jordan, said Jacobs had been a model citizen before he became addicted to painkillers following an accident.

“The drugs just wiped him out," Jordan told the Press-Register.

Patch will update this story if more information becomes available.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Fair Lawn-Saddle Brook