Former Coral Gables attorney sentenced after pleading guilty to a string of bank robberies
Miami attorney Aaron Patrick Honaker successfully robbed only two of the five banks he hit last year between Coral Gables and Aventura, according to a criminal complaint filed in a Miami federal court
That was enough for the now-former attorney to receive a sentence of 40 months in prison for committing a string of five bank robberies and attempted bank robberies in South Florida in September and October 2020.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez of the Southern District of Florida and FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro announced the sentencing on Thursday.
Honaker, 42, could have been sentenced to 60 months based on recommended sentencing guidelines. United States District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke sentenced Honaker to 40 months and a term of four years under supervision after his release.
Honaker was disbarred in April, according to Florida Bar records.
A guilty plea
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Honaker pleaded guilty in August for attempting to rob a Citibank in Coral Gables in September 2020. He also admitted that days later he robbed a Chase Bank in Aventura.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Honaker also tried to rob a Wells Fargo Bank and an HSBC Bank and robbed a Chase Bank, all in Coral Gables in October 2020.
Honaker “admitted to police that he knew each of the tellers that he approached during the robberies were scared as a result of his conduct,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Honaker told law enforcement that he carried a hammer into the banks “to escape any glass mantraps potentially triggered by bank security.”
The arrest
Coral Gables police arrested Honaker on Oct. 20, 2020 — five days after the attempted robbery of the HSBC Bank. Detectives spotted and recognized Honaker from surveillance footage. After Honaker and a detective “locked eyes,” a chase ended inside a parking garage near Alhambra Circle.
Honaker was arrested and had with him a hammer and demand notes. His stashed backpack also held a change of clothes, toiletries and his passport, and he said the TD Bank on Alhambra Circle “was next on his robbery attempt list,” according to the arrest report.
The sentencing letter
In a sentencing letter submitted on behalf of Honaker, a fellow inmate described him as kind-hearted, respectful, smart and a “willing to give you the shirt off his back” kind of guy,” and that he “easily gains the respect of other inmates (which is not an easy feat),” the ABA Journal reported.
Honaker used his legal background — which included three years at Greenberg Traurig from 2008 to 2011 — to assist other inmates with their cases, the sentencing letter said.
An explanation
According to the transcript of his detention hearing, filed with court documents in October 2020, Honaker told law enforcement he was homeless and “on bad terms with his family and did not want them to be called on the day of his arrest.”
According to the court documents, he “quit his career” and “went off the grid” by “traveling extensively around the world.” Honaker’s passport indicated he had been to “China, Mexico, the Philippines, Peru, Ecuador and all over the Caribbean Islands.”
When arrested, he asked law enforcement to contact his fiancee, who lives in Colombia.
According to the court transcript, she told them she had filed a missing persons report in South Florida because Honaker was supposed to return to Colombia to live there with her permanently.
