News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
April 30, 2008
Bank robber is sentenced
A federal judge today sentenced William Harper, of Pawtucket, to 37 months in federal prison for bank robbery. Harper took about $3,600 in a robbery at the Pawtucket Credit Union on Broadway in March 2007.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the sentence, which Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi imposed in U.S. District Court, Providence.
Harper, 41, pleaded guilty in October to bank robbery. At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Zechariah Chafee said the government could prove that, on March 14, 2007, Harper went into the Credit Union at 540 Broadway, wearing a ski mask. When he failed to get any attention at one teller window, he went to an adjacent teller, pushed in front of a customer, and thrust a plastic bag toward the teller, saying, “Fill this bag. Hurry up.” The teller put about $3,600 in the bag, and Harper fled. Pawtucket Police arrested him at his Woodlawn Avenue apartment about a month later. After detectives confronted him with bank surveillance photos, he admitted committing the robbery.
Pawtucket Police and the FBI investigated the robbery.