Man admits to downstate bank heist

EAST ST. LOUIS -- Sentencing will be in September for an Indiana man who federal authorities say helped rob a southern Illinois bank at Christmastime because he needed the loot to pay for his wife's cancer treatment.

Sixty-one-year-old Daniel Ravellette of Vincennes, Ind., pleaded guilty Tuesday in East St. Louis to aggravated bank robbery and a weapons count.

Authorities say Ravellette and another masked suspect robbed a Regions Bank in Lebanon last Dec. 19, when Ravellette pointed the guns at tellers and threatened them. Ravellette later fired several shots at police before he was taken into custody with two other suspects.

Authorities have said Ravellette told investigators he masterminded the holdup because his wife has cancer and he needed money.

Trials are pending for two other suspects.