Serial Bank Robber Sentenced

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles stated that Kelvin Barton, age 37, of St. George, South Carolina, was sentenced today subsequent to his conviction for five bank robberies in the Low Country area. Barton pled guilty on February 27, 2012 to the armed robbery of the following banks: the National Bank of South Carolina at 616 North Main Street in Summerville on July 23, 2010; the South Carolina State Credit Union at 6750 Rivers Avenue in North Charleston on September 2, 2010; the National Bank of South Carolina at 1870 Sam Rittenberg Boulevard in Charleston on April 5, 2011; the SunTrust Bank at 8610 Dorchester Road in North Charleston on May 27, 2011; and the First Federal Bank at 3628 Savannah Highway in Charleston on June 7, 2011.

District Court Judge Richard M. Gergel sentenced Barton to a prison term of 121 months. Consecutive to that sentence, Judge Gergel imposed an additional 30-month sentence because Barton violated the terms of his supervised release when he committing these five bank robberies. He was on supervised release for the 1999 armed robbery of a Summerville bank for which he received a sentence of 135 months in 2000.

In each of the robberies, Barton approached bank tellers while pointing a gun at them and demanding cash. Authorities later learned that the gun he used was not a firearm but instead an air-powered pellet gun that Barton had altered to more closely resemble a real firearm. He wore either a ski mask or a woman’s wig to disguise his appearance.

After his last robbery on June 7, 2011, witnesses gave a description of his getaway vehicle to police. Barton led police on a chase until he crashed his vehicle and then attempted to flee on foot.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alston C. Badger and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as local police departments.