Madison bank robber put away for 42 years without parole
A Madison man convicted of robbing the same Middleton bank twice within a month was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 42 years in prison and ordered to make restitution of $118,971.
Jarrett M. James, 29, robbed Bank Mutual's Century Avenue branch on March 16, 2006, and April 14, 2006, taking $62,000 and $59,000, respectively. The amounts were the largest of any bank robbery in the western Wisconsin assistant U.S. attorney John Vaudreuil said he could remember in the past 30 years.
"These were also violent robberies. In the first one he leaped the counter and the second he stuck a 9 millimeter (pistol) into the back of (a bank employee) he herded people into the vault in both robberies, " Vaudreuil told District Judge Barbara Crabb.
James then spent $16,000 on furniture at American TV and Appliance, $15,500 on a 2000 Lexus, leased an apartment for $6,000 and bought 30 ounces of cocaine, said Vaudreuil.
James was arrested in Omaha, Neb. a month after the robberies on a traffic stop, which resulted in gun and marijuana charges. Police there recovered the 9-millimeter pistol used in the robberies, a few pounds of marijuana and $30,000 in cash while searching his vehicle, Vaudreuil said.
James was arrested in Omaha on gun and drug charges and extradited to Madison for his previous charges and was convicted on two counts each of bank robbery and using a gun to commit a felony.
A Madison citizen saw James acting suspiciously while James tossed a pink item in a dumpster near an apartment in Madison. The Madison police retrieved what turned out to be a fleece, hot-pink glove identical to the gloves worn by James in the second robbery, said Vaudreuil. The Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory was then able to match James' DNA to DNA taken from the glove.
Vaudreuil asked Crabb to impose a sentence within the 42- to 45-year guideline range for the offense.
James' attorney Michael Lieberman said his client maintains his innocence and the 32-year mandatory minimum sentence was "more than enough punishment," given the circumstances of the crimes and his criminal background.
Crabb disagreed, said the evidence presented at trial put James at both robberies and a lengthier sentence was warranted due to the nature of the crimes, James' history of gambling and use of controlled substances and his prior drug, escape and stalking convictions.
Crabb also ordered James' Lexus be sold and the proceeds paid the bank.
Lieberman said he would appeal the
convictions on grounds there wasn't enough proof of his client's
guilt.
