FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

WEDNESDAY - December 12, 2007

GUILTY VERDICT IN TRIAL OF BANK ROBBER

RALEIGH - United States Attorney George E. B. Holding announced that HENDERSON LEWIS HINTON, 30, was convicted in federal court in Raleigh today. Following a jury trial that began on Monday, December 10, 2007, HINTON was found guilty of two counts of armed robbery affecting interstate commerce, one count of armed bank robbery, and three counts of using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. The defendant was charged in an indictment filed on November 13, 2006. The trial was conducted before U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle.

HINTON was convicted of the October 16, 2006, armed robbery of the Nationwide Insurance Agency in Ahoskie, North Carolina. He was also convicted of the October 19, 2006, armed robberies of Bennett Insurance Services in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and the Southern Bank branch in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. He was convicted of using a firearm to commit all three robberies. In each of the robberies, HINTON pointed a revolver at the victims and demanded money. He received $1,429.00 in the Ahoskie robbery, $10.00 in the Rocky Mount robbery, and $1,074.00 from the Scotland Neck bank robbery. All of these robberies occurred one month following HINTON’S release from federal prison following his 2003 conviction for a 2002 bank robbery in Greenville, North Carolina.

HINTON will be sentenced by Judge Boyle at some time in the spring of 2008. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Ahoskie Police Department, the Rocky Mount Police Department, the Scotland Neck Police Department, and the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney John H. Bennett of the Greenville branch office is handling the case for the Government.

News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.