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Footville bank robbery suspect sentenced

Photo

Curtis Seaberry

MADISON — One of the gunmen in a Nov. 9 Footville bank robbery was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years and one month in federal prison, five years probation and ordered to make restitution of $950.

Curtis Seaberry, 21, Rockford, Ill., carried a semi-automatic, .22-caliber pistol into Mid-American Bank and went behind the counter to take money from teller drawers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Graber said.

Troy Thomas, 35, Rockford, carried a shotgun and watched the front of the bank while Seaberry and Donald Thompson, 21, also of Rockford, grabbed more than $5,400 in cash and gave it to Matthew Evans, Graber said.

The men fled in a black Lexus, which Thomas stole in Beloit, and then switched to Thomas’ brown Mercury, which was stopped by a Rock County sheriff’s deputy near the state line. Seaberry ran from the car while Thomas, Thompson and Skye Archambault raced off in the Mercury toward Rockford with the deputy in pursuit. The car ran out of gas just before reaching the city limits, Graber said.

Seaberry was caught shortly after he bolted from the car. Thomas, Thompson and Archambault were apprehended at Thomas’ car.

Evans took $950 from the robbery proceeds and called his Rockford girlfriend, who arranged a taxicab to pick up Evans in Footville and drive him to Rockford, Graber said. Authorities arrested Evans two days later.

At sentencing Wednesday, Seaberry’s attorney, Anthony Delyea, asked for leniency, noting that his client had written an apology to the victims at the bank and testified against Evans, the only defendant to go to trial.

In exchange for his trial testimony, Crabb took about 10 months off Seaberry’s sentence. Crabb noted Seaberry had a tough upbringing, but Graber said Seaberry “was an intelligent young man who did well in school but ran with the wrong crowd.”

Seaberry had served 18 months of a four-year prison sentence for dealing crack cocaine in Illinois and was paroled less than three months before he decided to help Thomas rob the bank, Graber said.

Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, May 8, and Evans is to be sentenced June 4.

Thomas previously was sentenced to 14 1/2 years and Archambault, of Orfordville, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 1/2 years.