BRUNSWICK, Ga. – James Ronald McCormick, 61, was sentenced Thursday to 135 months in federal prison for the February 2011 armed robbery of the Southeastern Bank on Trade Street in Brunswick.
McCormick pleaded guilty to charges after placing what appeared to be a bomb into the drive-in teller drawer and demanding money. McCormick demanded that the bank teller, who was pregnant at the time of the robbery, ?not push any buttons or give him money with a dye pack,? prosecutors said.
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Prosecutors said McCormick, assisted by his wife, Anna McCormick, got away with $815, and over the course of several days, evaded capture by law enforcement. When McCormick was ultimately found, he barricaded himself in a camper trailer at Norwich Street at Eighth Street, repeatedly saying he wanted to die, prosecutors said. He was apprehended by the FBI and police after a flash-bang grenade was detonated to subdue McCormick and his wife.
"This defendant deserved a lengthy prison sentence," U.S. Attorney Edward Tarver said. "McCormick terrorized the innocent and unsuspecting employees of Southeast Bank during the armed robbery.?
McCormick had previous state convictions for murder, kidnapping and escape in connection with abducting a man in Florida in the 1970s, placing him in the trunk of a car and driving to Brunswick, where he killed the victim and dumped his body in a swamp.
McCormick was convicted of that murder and received a life sentence in Georgia, escaped from prison while serving that life sentence, was captured and returned to prison, but was later released on parole. During McCormick?s first stint on parole, he was convicted of a drug offense, and after he was paroled again, he committed this armed bank robbery.
Noting McCormick?s criminal history, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood ordered that McCormick?s 135-month federal sentence run consecutive to any state sentence McCormick receives for violating parole on the murder conviction. There is no parole on federal prison sentences. The court further ordered that if McCormick is ever released from prison, he will be on federal supervised release for an additional five years.