YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown police were able to arrest Phil D. Whitman Jr., 45, of Cassius Avenue about 4 p.m. Thanksgiving day near his home after a “sighting” of the vehicle used in Monday’s robbery of the First National Bank downtown.

A Youngstown police report states that an officer went to the 700 block of Cassius Avenue to investigate a 2000s silver Cadillac being seen. It had a dent behind the left front, first turn signal.

On the officer’s way there, he spotted an early 2000s gray Cadillac turning east on McGuffey Road from Cassius Street. The officer followed the vehicle and observed the license plate and called it in to a dispatcher.

It came back to a 2006 Cadillac with expired license plates. The officer made a traffic stop, with the vehicle stopping in the Speed Check gas station at Lansdowne Boulevard and Oak Street. The driver was Whitman, who had a suspended driver’s license and a warrant out of Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman on a misdemeanor theft charge.

Two Youngstown officers arrested Whitman and took him to the detective division of the police department to be interviewed by police. Officers charged Whitman with aggravated robbery, driving under suspension and having an expired registration.

The owner of the car is a female, 19, of Youngstown.

When police searched Whitman, they found two “crisp, new” $100 bills in his rear left pocket of his pants. The bills, as well as other cash in another pants pocket, were taken as evidence and given to a Youngstown crime lab officer.

Whitman, who is in the Mahoning County jail, will be arraigned Monday in Youngstown Municipal Court. He was convicted of a felony drug charge in 2000 in Mahoning County and was sentenced to one year in prison. He has a long list of traffic and other misdemeanor offenses through Youngstown Municipal Court dating back to 1998.

THE ROBBERY

Police said the man who demanded money and received about $2,000 in cash at 2:16 p.m. Monday at the bank at 1 W. Federal St. had parked on Federal near the bank entrance, and walked to the vehicle and drove away after the robbery.

The teller who was robbed at first wasn’t sure if the man was kidding when he handed her a note saying “cash or gun.” But the robber said, “I’m serious. Hurry up.”

The teller gave the suspect cash, and he left. He fled eastbound on Federal Street. The vehicle had damage to the front passenger side fender. It had a metal license plate in the back, police said.

He was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, brown boots and white surgical mask. The man’s car was parked on Federal street from 2:03 p.m. until 2;12 p.m., police said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and detectives with the FBI took over the investigation from responding officers.

erunyan@vindy.com