Career Offender Sentenced to 14 Years in Federal Prison for Bank Robbery

A federal judge today sentenced Darrin Gray, a career offender with more than 30 prior convictions, to 14 years in federal prison for a bank robbery he committed in Cumberland last year.

United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha announced the sentence, which Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi imposed in U.S. District Court, Providence.

In March, Gray, 45, of no permanent address, pleaded guilty to committing the robbery at a Sovereign Bank branch on

Broad Street

in Cumberland on June 20, 2009. At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Zechariah Chafee said that Gray went into the bank, showed an employee a note, and shoved her toward a teller station, where he demanded money. He fled the bank with $7,450.

Detectives for the Violent Fugitive Task Force located Gray at a gas station on

Chalkstone Avenue

in Providence three days later. Police tried to block Gray’s vehicle, a Jeep Cherokee, and two officers approached Gray on foot. He drove right at one of the police officers, who was displaying his badge. The officer fired two pistol shots at Gray, who was not injured, fled the gas station in the Cherokee, and sped through local streets before fleeing the vehicle. Police officers arrested him shortly after he fled the vehicle.

At today’s sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chafee detailed Gray’s long arrest record, which dates back to 1985 and includes convictions for assault, robbery, larceny, shoplifting, and breaking and entering. In a document filed with the court, Mr. Chafee argued for a long prison sentence, noting that Gray had “manhandled a woman” during the robbery, and then after obtaining more than $7,000 from the bank, “treated himself to cocaine and strippers as a reward.”

The investigation into the robbery was conducted by Cumberland Police, the Violent Fugitive Task Force, which is staffed by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Rhode Island State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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