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Bank robber faces 31 years in prison

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Matthew Evans

MADISON — The fifth and final person convicted in the November robbery of a Footville bank was sentenced Wednesday to 31 years and 10 months in federal prison.

The sentence imposed on Matthew Evans, 36, Rockford, Ill., reflects his extensive criminal record, lying at his trial, attempting to bribe co-defendants to swearing his wasn’t involved and running from law enforcement after they stopped the getaway car, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb said.

“At trial, I realized that you are a completely amoral person,” Crabb told him.

Evans was the only defendant to go to trial after the Nov. 9 robbery at Mid-American Bank. He was a fugitive for two days after the robbery. He and Curtis Seaberry ran from the getaway car when it was pulled over west of Beloit.

Troy Thomas sped away again but his car ran out of gas just north of Rockford, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Graber said.

Evans was apprehended and charged with armed bank robbery along with Skye Archambault, 21, Orfordville, and Donald Thompson, 21; Seaberry, 21, and Thomas, 35, all of Rockford.

During the robbery, Evans was supposed to duct tape the wrists of the witnesses but instead ran behind the counter and grabbed money from cash drawers, Graber said.

Graber asked Crabb to give Evans the maximum sentence based on his arrest record that filled six pages.

Evans committed the robbery while on probation for a drug offense in Illinois. His prior convictions for drugs and violent offenses, including aggravated battery to a pregnant woman, gave him “career offender” status. Under federal sentencing guidelines, boosting his sentencing range for the robbery.

Because three of the masked robbers carried weapons during the crime, Crabb was required to add 10 years to each defendant’s sentence.

Evans’ attorney, Mark Maciolek, asked that his client’s sentence be no greater than the 142 years Crabb imposed on Thomas, who Maciolek said organozed the robbery.

Crabb disagreed, saying that Evans’ past—being shot twice while a member of a Chicago street gang in the 1990s, drug abuse as teenager and continued criminal activity since he became 18—made him “a danger to the community” and deserving of a long sentence.