Judge Wears Nun Disguise To Test Bank Robber’s Defense Claims

A Judge wore a nun disguise to test the veracity of claims made by a bank robber. Judge Matthew Kennelly wore the nun costume to test out 25-year-old Navahcia Edwards’ defense that the May 2011 heist of a TCF Bank was in fact carried out by a white robber, not an African American like her.

Navahcia Edwards was caught at her bank job embezzling more than $20,000. In order to pay back this money, Edwards concocted a scheme with her boyfriend, Lyndon Germel Wesley, to copy the fictional bank robbery featured in the movie The Town where they robbed a bank at gunpoint while disguised in scary masks and nuns’ robes.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the nun disguise bank robbery was a success:

“The two escaped with $120,000, according to authorities. Wesley said he cut up the masks and burned the nun costumes in a grill. They allegedly split the money and spent it lavishly. Edwards allegedly bought a new laptop, clothes and splurged on a $500 photo shoot. She also used the money to put down a $250 deposit on an engagement ring for Wesley, prosecutors said. During his testimony, Wesley said he and Edwards had planned to marry, have children and move out of Chicago.”

The boyfriend Wesley has since taken the stand against Edwards. In her defense, Edwards claimed that Wesley robbed the bank with a white skinned partner while both were dressed as aged white nuns.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Judge had to deal with two points of conflicting evidence. A frame of security camera footage shows the female robber’s unclothed arm appearing to be white, although the Judge believes this is due to “poor camera quality and lighting” since the male robber, Wesley, also had a supposedly white arm. Yet at the same time, the testimony of two tellers said they could see the robbers’ black skin through the eye holes of their nun masks.

Edwards’ also was recorded purchasing the nun masks from an online costume store, which the Judge believed served only one purpose:

“The only conceivable purpose for purchasing nun masks and robes was to do something nefarious with them — let’s just say it was nowhere near Halloween.”

So the Judge worse the nun disguise to test Edward’s claim that “a white robber disguised herself as a black woman disguised as a white woman in a masterly double bluff.” When he ” put on the mask and looked in the mirror,” Kennelly could clearly see his own white skin through the nun mask’s eye holes.

The Town apparently has inspired at least several would-be thieves. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, a similarly disguised robber in a nun costume robbed a convenience store of its beer back in 2011.

What do you think about this Judge wearing a nun disguise in order to test the bank robber’s defense?