Collier man arrested in March bank robbery gets 1 year in jail

A Collier County man arrested in March in connection with a robbery at a North Naples bank was sentenced to one year in county jail, followed by two years of probation. 

Christopher Belyea, 35, faced a charge of robbery without a firearm or weapon and pleaded no contest Oct. 26, court records show.

He received credit for time served of 219 days and was ordered to pay restitution of $1,000, which was the sum taken, Samantha Syoen, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office, said in an email.

The maximum penalty for robbery is 15 years, but a defendant could be subject to a shorter sentence depending on his or her criminal history, Syoen said.

Had the case gone to trial and Belyea been convicted, there would be no way to know what a judge would have sentenced him to because it is up to the judge's discretion, she said.

The resolution "was reached based on the facts of the case, working with the victim — Iberia Bank and evaluating the scoresheet," Syoen wrote, referring to a point system that provides sentencing guidelines in Florida.

"There is a possibility the defendant would not have received prison time."

The Public Defender's Office of the 20th Judicial Circuit, which represented Belyea,  said it could not comment on the case without its client's consent.

Deputies arrested Belyea March 22 after they said he robbed an Iberia Bank on Pine Ridge Road.

That morning, a man, wearing sunglasses and a black beanie cap, entered the bank through the front door, approached the teller window and said he wanted to cash a check, a bank teller told deputies.

He then reached into his pocket and gave the teller a note demanding $1,000 in cash "in the denominations of twenty dollar bills," according to a Sheriff's Office arrest report.

The teller showed the note to the assistant bank manager, who told her to give him the money so nobody would get hurt, the report states.

After receiving the money, the man, later identified as Belyea, left the bank.

A witness told deputies about a man running in the direction of a building in the 5500 block of Shirley Street, just a few blocks from the bank. Deputies then found Belyea hiding in his stepfather's garage unit on Shirley Street, according to the report.

The stepfather told deputies he was sitting on his couch, in the back of the garage, when he observed a large pile of dirty laundry on the floor beginning to move and Belyea suddenly emerge from underneath the laundry as deputies entered into the front area of the garage. 

The teller identified Belyea as the man who had been in the bank but said he had a heavier beard at the time.

Deputies observed "dozens of small cut hairs" on Belyea's undershirt and said his face was "partially shaved with areas of short facial hair and other areas of long facial hair," the report states. When deputies searched the laundry pile they found an electric razor, according to the report. 

When deputies searched a trash bin near Shirley Street, they found clothing that matched the ones worn by the man in the bank surveillance footage.