Jesus Sanchez Sanchez caused more than $120,000 in damage when he stole an excavator and used it to rip an ATM out of a Winter Haven bank.

Sanchez Sanchez, 52, is a habitual felony offender and was sentenced to 30 years in prison Sept. 28.

He was found guilty May 5 of grand theft of $100,000 or more, burglary of a dwelling with over $1,000 in damage, grand theft with over $1,000 in damage and burglary of a conveyance.

Sanchez Sanchez stole the excavator and used it to rip the ATM out of the bank and place it in the bed of his truck. He and an accomplice then covered the mangled ATM with a tarp and drove on back roads in Winter Haven before being pulled over by law enforcement.

There was a 20-minute gap in the timeline where the defense claimed an accomplice dropped Sanchez Sanchez off to buy cigarettes and then used his truck to steal the ATM alone. But Assistant State Attorney Bonde Johnson – who tried the case alongside ASA Jennifer Van Der Burgh – told jurors that a bootprint found at the construction site where the excavator was stolen matched the boots Sanchez Sanchez was wearing at the time of the crime.

He also said a piece of the ATM that matched the stolen one was found in a neighborhood near the Winter Haven bank. After calculating how long it would take to drive the route Sanchez Sanchez and his accomplice took, there was only a 3½ minute gap

Not only would putting on a tarp most likely take two people, Johnson said, someone would need to drive the excavator while the other pulls the truck up to load the ATM into it and drive away. Johnson said that the crime would have been impossible without two people to execute it.