Federal Jury Convicts 58-Year-Old Man for Using a Sawed-Off Shotgun in December 2008 to Rob the Same Bank He Robbed in 1990

CHARLOTTE, NC—A federal jury in the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division, convicted William Ray Wooten for his December 2008 armed robbery of the same Gastonia, North Carolina bank he robbed at gunpoint in 1990. The return of the guilty verdict on June 17, 2009, followed a two-day trial. The robbery was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Gastonia Police Department, and the Police Department of Greenwood Village, Colorado.

The indictment, in court docket number 3:09-cr-13, charged Wooten with robbing the Bank of America branch at 2950 Union Road, Gastonia, North Carolina. The jury found that Wooten robbed the bank at gunpoint and forced the manager to accompany him outside the bank before stealing her car. The jury further found that Wooten, a convicted felon, used or carried a firearm during and in relation to the bank robbery.

In 1992, William Ray Wooten was convicted in federal court for the armed robbery of six banks, including the 1990 robbery of the then North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) branch located at 2950 Union Road, Gastonia, North Carolina. After serving sixteen years in federal prison, Wooten had been out for less than a month before sawing-off the barrel of a 12-gauge shotgun and robbing the Gastonia bank for a second time. After the December 9, 2008, robbery, Wooten fled west. Local authorities apprehended Wooten in Colorado the next day, December 10, 2008. During a search of Wooten’s Colorado hotel room, officers found the clothes Wooten wore while robbing the bank and the briefcase he used during the hold-up. U.S. Currency tracing back to the North Carolina bank was recovered from inside Wooten’s briefcase. The sawed-off shotgun, loaded, was found in Wooten’s van. Wooten explained to the FBI that he robbed the bank with a shotgun, “this time.”

Today’s announcement of the guilty verdict is made by Acting U.S. Attorney Edward R. Ryan, who is joined by Owen Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina, and Chief Tim Adams of the Gastonia Police Department.

Following Wednesday’s conviction, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. announced that sentencing would take place on a later date, and that Wooten would be held in custody of the United States Marshal’s Service pending that hearing. The federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 52-58 years’ imprisonment.

The prosecution was handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark A. Jones and Thomas Cullen of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.