Plea In 'Cell Phone Bandit' Case

(CBS/AP)  The boyfriend of the accused "cell phone bandit" pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

Dave C. Williams, 19, of Fairfax, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

According to federal prosecutors, Williams admitted conspiring with Candice R. Martinez, also 19, to rob four northern Virginia branches of Wachovia Bank. Williams told authorities that he and Martinez used his computer to write a note threatening to shoot the teller or someone nearby if the cash were not handed over.

Investigators say Martinez is the woman seen in a surveillance video chatting on a cell phone while robbing a bank. In each case, they say, Williams was on the other end of the calls, waiting outside the bank to drive the getaway car.

The couple allegedly robbed banks in Vienna, Springfield, Ashburn and Manassas between Oct. 12 and Nov. 4, with Wachovia being targeted because Williams once worked at the Vienna branch and was familiar with how the bank operated.

Federal officials said a total of $48,620 was stolen. As part of his plea, Williams agreed to waive his interest in items prosecutors said he spent the money on, including a 1997 Acura Integra, a plasma TV and designer apparel. Sentencing before Judge Gerald Bruce Lee was scheduled for Feb. 24.

Williams' plea came two days after Martinez appeared in the same courthouse where she was ordered held without bond. At that hearing, an FBI special agent testified that a black revolver had been recovered from the home of Williams' stepfather. The weapon is believed to be the gun that a teller reported seeing during a Nov. 4 robbery in Ashburn.

A federal grand jury is considering charges against Martinez.

The court papers also reveal Martinez's that Williams had once worked at one of the bank branches.

In one incident detailed in the affidavit, Martinez allegedly showed the teller a box with a note demanding $75,000. She got less than $15,000. None of the cash from any of the heists has been recovered.

Martinez was arrested just before 4 a.m. at a home in nearby Centreville, Va., after an FBI agent spotted a car nearby with license plates they had been searching for.

CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reported she was arrested without incident and was unarmed at the time.

The FBI had issued a bulletin a few hours earlier saying Martinez and her boyfriend could be heading to Texas, New Mexico or New York, said Debbie Weirman, a spokeswoman from the FBI's Washington Field Office.

"It was a wonderful stroke of luck that (the agent) happened to spot that license plate, and everything unfolded safely and without incident," Weirman told WRC-TV.