Prosecutors want a nearly five-year prison sentence for a young Roseville woman who grew up in a "crystal palace" in Saudi Arabia only to go on a bank robbery spree that her family blames on a manipulative lover.
Ranya Al-Huthaili, 23, admitted in her guilty plea in February that she hid behind large sunglasses and held up five banks in the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin from Aug. 15 until Sept. 9, threatening bloodshed while making off with more than $20,000 in total.
In a filing Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis, the U.S. attorney's office said Al-Huthaili lived "a life of privilege" until moving to the Twin Cities from Saudi Arabia with her mother at age 17. She graduated from Roseville High School and attended Hamline University in St. Paul.
"[Al-Huthaili's] own mother describes the defendant's home in Saudi Arabia as a 'crystal palace,' " the prosecution noted in its filing seeking a prison term of 57 months.
"The defendant had maids and drivers to wait on her needs … counted princesses as her closest friends," and had her tuition paid in full by the Saudi government plus $1,800 for personal expenses, prosecutors continued.
The family explained to law enforcement that Al-Huthaili was under the romantic spell of a new love interest who said he was desperate for money to buy his way out of the Mafia as a hit man and to pay for cancer treatment. She first loaned him $8,000 based on his "tales of woe," and then started robbing banks, according to court records.
Al-Huthaili's defense attorney sought a shorter, unspecified sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21.
Prosecutors countered that Al-Huthaili used her lover's stories as justification, and "despite her idyllic upbringing, took a dark turn." The prosecution also noted that Al-Huthaili "stated that [her lover] was not even aware that she was robbing banks."
