2 more arrested in connection with South Salt Lake bank robbery

Arrested man in handcuffs with handcuffed hands behind back in prison handcuffed

Arrested man in handcuffs with handcuffed hands behind back in prison handcuffed (Brian A Jackson, Shutterstock)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Brelyn Capri Sanchez, 37, was arrested as the alleged getaway driver in a Sept. 4 bank robbery.
  • Thomas Domingo Bustos, 31, and Fidel Ybarra, 52, face charges of aggravated robbery.
  • Ybarra claimed the bomb was fake; Bustos allegedly orchestrated the plan, police say.

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Two more people have been arrested in connection with a bank robbery that allegedly involved a bomb.

Thomas Domingo Bustos, 31, and Fidel Ybarra, 52, were each booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Thursday for investigation of aggravated robbery and using a weapon or hoax weapon of mass destruction.

Brelyn Capri Sanchez, 37, who police believe was the getaway driver, was booked into jail on Wednesday for investigation of the same charges.

On Sept. 4, police responded to a robbery at America First Credit Union, 3499 S. State, according to a police booking affidavit.

"It was discovered that a male entered the bank … with a gray backpack and handed a note to the bank teller. The note stated that they have a bomb and wanted money put in the bag," the affidavit states.

The bank teller told police "he was in fear for his life as the bomb … looked real," according to the affidavit.

After the teller handed over approximately $1,200, the robber left the bank and got into the passenger seat of a red Dodge Durango. Using "neighborhood cameras and UTA cameras," detectives traced the vehicle to an apartment complex in Murray where Sanchez was located, the affidavit states.

"Brelyn admitted to being the driver of the vehicle used as a getaway car," police stated.

Detectives also learned that a BMW 325 may be involved, the affidavit states, and that Bustos was the registered owner of both the Durago and BMW.

"The vehicles are caught on camera meeting before the robbery at an apartment complex, then caught on camera roaming back and forth through the area of the bank, and then also caught on camera meeting together at the same apartment complex after the robbery occurs," according to the affidavit,

Investigators learned that "Thomas Bustos was the person who set up the plan and coordinated everyone else. According to involved parties, the money stolen from the bank was handed to Thomas before fleeing the county to his (own) residence. This information was corroborated with cell phone call detail records that are associated (with) Thomas Bustos," the affidavit states.

Ybarra was later identified as the man who entered the bank.

"Ybarra gave information to (police) that only someone who was at the scene of the crime, or associated to the crime, would have known. Including what he was wearing, the make and color of the vehicle, and that a bank was robbed with what was believed to be a incendiary explosive device in the South Salt Lake area.

Ybarra later admitted to having a faux bomb and was not a real Improvised Explosive Device," according to the affidavit.

Detectives further note in their affidavit that the alleged bomb used in the bank robbery "has not been located."

Bustos is currently on probation from a prior conviction. According to court records, he was originally charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, in 2024, but pleaded no contest in March to threatening to use a weapon in a fight, a class A misdemeanor, and was placed on two years probation.

Sanchez was also on probation at the time of her arrest. On June 29 she was convicted of a drug-related crime, according to charging documents.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Pat Reavy, KSLPat Reavy
Pat Reavy interned with KSL in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL or Deseret News since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops-and-courts beat.

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