Bank Robber Gets 13 Years In Federal Court

SALISBURY — A Salisbury man who pleaded guilty in federal court in August to bank robbery following the hold-up of a PNC Bank last March was sentenced this week to 13 years in prison.

Gary Allen Mitchell, 43, of Salisbury, in August pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to bank robbery. According to his plea agreement, Mitchell robbed the PNC Bank on Civic Ave. in Salisbury on March 21. Back in court on Tuesday, Mitchell was sentenced to 13 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The federal judge enhanced Mitchell’s sentence after determining he is a career offender based on two prior federal bank robbery convictions including one each in Maryland and Delaware.

According to the statement of facts in the case, Mitchell entered the PNC Bank on Civic Ave. in Salisbury on March 21 and gave the teller a note stating he was robbing the bank and would harm the teller if she did not comply with his demands and that he had a gun. Mitchell had his hand in his pocket as if he was carrying a gun.

He told the teller not to pull the alarm, nor give him any marked money, dye packs or tracking devices. The teller then gave Mitchell $4,177 in cash, including a tracking device within a stack of $50 bills, as per bank policy. Mitchell then became angry, threw the money on the counter and told the teller he had instructed her not to do that. Police officers located Mitchell soon thereafter smoking crack cocaine shortly after the bank robbery and recovered the stolen money. At the time of the robbery, Mitchell was on supervised release for a previous federal bank robbery conviction.

The sentence was announced on Tuesday by U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod Rosenstein, FBI Special Agent In-Charge Stephen Vogt, Salisbury Police Chief Barbara Duncan and Wicomico County State’s Attorney Matt Maciarello. Rosenstein praised the FBI, Salisbury Police and the Wicomico State’s Attorney’s Office for their diligent work in the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie Greenberg, who prosecuted the case.