TENNESSEE MAN SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS FOR ROBBING BOWLING GREEN BANK

BOWLING GREEN, KY –Richard Edward Parrott, age 59, of Joelton, Tennessee, was sentenced on March 5, 2008, to 25 years imprisonment in United States District Court, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for robbing the South Central Bank in Bowling Green on April 6, 2007, and attempting to rob the same bank on April 25, 2007, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky announced today. Thomas B. Russell, Judge, United States District Court, also sentenced Parrott to 5 years supervised release following incarceration. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. In addition, restitution in the amount of $12,105 was imposed.

Parrott had pled guilty to robbing the South Central Bank located at 1709 US 31 Bypass in Bowling Green, on April 6, 2007, with his co-defendant, William Roy Hendrick. Parrott and Hendrick entered the bank wearing masks of former Presidents Nixon and Reagan, and Hendrick was armed with a .410 gauge sawed-off shotgun. Parrott jumped the teller counter and ordered the tellers to fill his bag with cash. After obtaining over $12,000 in cash, the two men left the bank and fled in a stolen Nissan pickup truck with Tennessee plates.

Parrott also pled guilty to attempting to rob the same bank again, with Hendrick, on April 25, 2007. On that day Parrott and Hendrick were both wearing masks, and Hendrick had the same .410 gauge sawed-off shotgun. The two men entered the outside door of the bank and into the foyer, and proceeded to the doors to the bank lobby. After the first robbery, however, the bank had installed a security system which allowed the tellers to automatically lock the doors to the lobby. When the tellers saw the two masked men enter the foyer, they locked the lobby doors. Believing that they were locked in the foyer, Hendrick shot the outside doors with the shotgun, and Hendrick and Parrott fled the bank in a stolen Toyota Corolla station wagon.

Hendrick previously pled guilty and in February received a similar 25 year sentence. Hendrick and Parrott had previously used a handgun to rob a bank in Florida in 1987, and after that robbery Parrott engaged in a shootout with police that resulted in a uniformed officer being shot. As a result of that incident, Hendrick was convicted of robbery, aggravated assault, grand theft, carrying a concealed firearm, aggravated robbery, and felonious possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment; and Parrott was convicted of first degree attempted murder, felonious possession of a firearm, robbery, and aggravated assault and was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment. Hendrick also has prior felony convictions for assault and battery (1966), third degree burglary (1977), theft over $1,000 (1998), criminal impersonation (1999), theft over $500 (2001), and assault (2002). Parrott has five other prior felony convictions for Grand larceny (1968 and 1975), bank robbery (1971), burglary (1976) and escape (1977).

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Weiser, and it was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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