Driver in bank robbery pleads guilty and could get 5 years in prison

Elyse Huffer

ALBION – The driver of the getaway car in a July 2 bank robbery in Albion pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery with the stipulation she serve no more than five years in state prison.

Elyse A. Hoffer, 22, of Rochester will be sentenced by Orleans County Court Judge James Punch on March 3. If he sentences her to more than five years, she can withdraw her plea. She made the plea on Wednesday.

“She was aiding and abetting,” District Attorney Joe Cardone said about Huffer and her role in the robbery. “She drove him there. She knew that.”

Huffer’s boyfriend Jeremy Rothmund, 30, pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree robbery in Orleans County Court today. The Rochester man will be sentenced to no more than 15 years in state prison as part of a plea deal. He will be sentenced on March 3.

Rothmund and Huffer face charges for additional robberies in Monroe County.

In an Oct. 21 court appearance, Rothmund confessed in court that he robbed the Bank of America in Albion on July 2, showing up at the bank wearing a mask and threatening a clerk with a bomb that later was discovered to be fake.

Rothmund said he told Huffer to park behind the Freeze-Dry building on Route 31 near the railroad tracks while he went to buy drugs. Rothmund returned with a bag full of $18,000. He said he told Huffer to drive fast out of town. (The two were later stopped and arrested in Holley after a resident identified them in Albion and called the police.)

Rothmund in court first said Huffer didn’t realize he was robbing banks, but he said on Monday that she knew what he was doing.

Rothmund and Huffer both faced a maximum of 20 years in state prison but through the pleas will have reduced sentences.