Wife in Bank-Robbing Duo Sentenced to Nearly Six Years in Prison
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 25, 2012 |
BIRMINGHAM—A federal judge today sentenced a Sarasota, Fla., woman to nearly six years in prison for a bank robbery spree she undertook with her husband, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley.
U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced Angela Shuttleworth, 21, to 70 months in prison for robbing or attempting to rob six banks in Alabama, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. She pleaded guilty to the six bank robbery counts in October. Her husband, Neil Shuttleworth, 27, has pleaded guilty to bank robberies in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. Those cases are being prosecuted in federal court in South Carolina, where he will be sentenced.
“This duo fashioned themselves as a modern-day version of Bonnie and Clyde, traveling the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest, robbing or attempting to rob banks as they went,” Vance said. “Angela Shuttleworth showed no regard for the well-being of the innocent people inside the banks she robbed or for the peace and security of the cities and towns where she committed her crimes.”
“This defendant and her husband spread their crimes across several states, but the FBI and its law enforcement partners worked together to track the couple’s string of bank robberies and bring the pair to justice,” Maley said.
The Alabama bank the Shuttleworths have pleaded guilty to robbing was a Compass Bank in Florence. According to court documents, Angela Shuttleworth entered that bank on Jan. 7, 2011, and robbed it of $4,276 by using a demand note. She was arrested after an off-duty Florence police officer caught her outside of the bank.
In the Florence robbery, as in all others for which Angela Shuttleworth is charged, Neil Shuttleworth wrote the threatening demand note and drove his wife to the bank where she went in and presented it to a bank teller. Angela Shuttleworth received money from the teller in five of the six cases she pleaded guilty to.
The FBI and Florence Police investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Terence M. O’Rourke prosecuted the case.