Multi-county bank robber gets 15 years

Seminole County Sheriff's Office booking photo of Kevin Lee Cotterman

PALM COAST, Fla. – An Apopka man who pleaded no contest to several bank robberies in multiple counties was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison.

Deputies said Kevin Lee Cotterman went into the Bank of America on Belle Terre Parkway in Palm Coast in May 2012 and gave the teller a note saying he had a gun. The teller handed him an envelope of money and Cotterman fled, according to deputies.

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Cotterman was also accused of holding up two banks in Jacksonville, one in Orange County and was a suspect in robberies in St. Johns and Volusia counties that happened in May and June 2012.

The FBI believes the man that held up the Wells Fargo on County Road 210 West in St. Johns County on May 1 is also the man wanted in at least two other bank robberies in the past two weeks.

Deputies said a tip from Crime Stoppers in DeLand led them to Cotterman. They matched Cotterman to security photos taken at the bank and when they arrested him, he confessed to the crime, detective said.

Cotterman tried to withdraw his plea Tuesday, but the judge denied his request.