GAINESVILLE, FL—Jack Lee Wright, 53, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for knowingly taking U.S. currency by force from a Gainesville bank. The sentence was announced by Christopher P. Canova, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

During his guilty plea on June 23, 2015, Wright admitted that, on April 25, 2014, he handed a Wells Fargo Bank teller a note listing the monetary denominations he wanted. He told her that she had ten seconds to give him the money, that she should not alert anyone, and that he had a gun in his bag. As a result, the teller gave Wright $2,025. In June 2014, Wright was identified as the perpetrator of a bank robbery in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, through a surveillance video shown on the news. Wright was later located and arrested in Maryland, possessing $10,000 and a suitcase containing clothes worn in other robberies. Officers also found a toy gun under the seat of his truck.

The court ordered that Wright’s sentence be served consecutively to the 48-month federal prison sentence imposed in Colorado.

The charges were the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Gainesville Police Department, and the Thurmont, Maryland Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gregory P. McMahon.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. The office strives to protect and serve the citizens of the Northern District of Florida through the ethical, vigorous, and impartial enforcement of the laws of the United States, to defend the national security, to improve the safety and quality of life in our communities through the protection of civil rights, and to protect the public funds and financial assets of the United States. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.