Hempstead man charged in two bank robberies, police say

A 40-year-old man wanted on two open Nassau warrants as well as a probation violation for cutting off his electronic monitoring device, faces robbery charges after holding up a bank Saturday in West Hempstead and a second Tuesday in Hempstead, police said.

Romell Nellis, of Hempstead, is charged with the 1:30 p.m. Saturday robbery of a Roslyn Savings Bank branch at 50 Hempstead Turnpike in West Hempstead, according to Nassau detectives with the Major Case Bureau.

Police said Nellis had previously been arrested and charged with a December robbery of the same branch. 

A subsequent investigation by detectives determined that on Tuesday at 5 p.m., Nellis robbed a Wells Fargo Bank branch at 145 Fulton Ave. in Hempstead, officials said. 

Nassau District Court Judge David McAndrews first ordered Nellis held on $10,000 bail for the December bank robberies, even though the charges were not bail-eligible offenses, records show. That decision was overturned by Nassau County Judge Christopher Quinn, who released Nellis without bail and ordered him fitted with an electronic ankle monitor, officials said.

In Saturday's robbery of the Roslyn Savings Bank in West Hempstead, Nellis approached a teller and passed a note "stating he had a gun," and demanded cash, police said. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

That robbery put Nellis at the center of a Crime Stoppers alert seeking information since detectives were able to identify Nellis as the suspect based on two earlier robberies — the December holdup of the same Roslyn Savings Bank and another one that month at a Chase Bank branch on North Central Avenue in Valley Stream, officials said.

Nellis faces two counts of third-degree robbery for the most recent robberies at Roslyn Savings and Wells Fargo, police said. He also faces the open county warrants for two counts of third-degree robbery and two counts of third-degree grand larceny.

He also will have to answer for the probation violation related to the destruction of the ankle monitor, police said.

It was not immediately clear if Nellis had an an attorney.

With Robert Brodsky

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”