Federal Judge Sentences Tuscaloosa Credit Union Robber to 41 Years in Prison

BIRMINGHAM—A federal judge Wednesday sentenced a Tuscaloosa man to 41 years in prison for armed robberies of two credit unions in 2011 and for escape from custody in December 2011, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.

Richard Patton, 22, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon to two counts of armed robbery and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence, stemming from the February 1, 2011, hold-up of the Tuscaloosa County Credit Union and the April 20, 2011, robbery of the Alabama Central Credit Union in Tuscaloosa.

Kallon sentenced Patton to the 41 years in prison and ordered him to pay $58,000 in restitution. Patton will be supervised for an additional five years upon his release from custody.

Patton’s admissions Wednesday were part of a consolidated plea agreement that included a third case, charging him for escaping from the Cullman County Detention Center on December 2, 2011, while incarcerated as a federal prisoner. Patton had previously pleaded guilty to the escape but had not been sentenced.

The 41-year sentence also incorporated Patton’s earlier sentence for a third armed robbery, which occurred April 26, 2011, at the Tuscaloosa Credit Union in Northport, with some of the sentences imposed Wednesday running concurrently and others running consecutively to that 13 ½-year sentence.

These cases were investigated by the Tuscaloosa Police Department, the Northport Police Department, the Cullman Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the FBI; and it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys L. James Weil Jr. and William G. Simpson.