Sister charged with driving brother’s getaway car

The sister of an accused bank robber has been charged with aiding in the heist of Citizens Tri-County Bank, a robbery allegedly carried out by her brother last year.

The suspect, Angela Emler, was given a May 28 plea or trial date during her arraignment before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley in which she entered a not-guilty plea to charges of aggravated robbery and attempted robbery.

Her charges come after her brother, Carl Anthony Brakeall Jr., was charged with bank robbery for the Oct. 4 armed robbery of the Plaza Shopping Center branch of Citizens Tri-County Bank. Investigators say Brakeall entered the bank wielding a gun and fled the scene on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

It is at that point lawmen say Emler became involved when her brother jumped into her car which was parked across the Plaza. Emler reportedly talked with police but maintained she did not realize her brother had robbed the bank until after they had left the scene. However, police maintain she acted as the driver of the getaway car and is therefore criminally liable along with her brother.

Brakeall was implicated in the Plaza heist during an investigation which was conducted while he was in jail for the attempted heist of the Tri-County branch in Mt. Leo, which happened three weeks after the Plaza robbery.

Investigators say Brakeall pulled up to the bank drive-thru on Oct. 26 and displayed a gun, later found to likely be a BB gun, and warned the teller, who was standing behind bullet-resistant glass, that he had wired the bank to blow up if she did not give him the bank’s money. The teller fled into another room and Brakeall reportedly left on his motorcycle. He was arrested a short time later and taken into custody at his home on Harrison Ferry Mountain.

It was during his confinement on that charge that his sister spoke with police concerning Plaza robbery, her statements reportedly implicate her and her brother.