A Las Vegas man who committed nine bank robberies, including one in Vancouver, after escaping from a correctional facility was sentenced Monday.
William Etheridge, 57, will spend 15 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada announced.
Etheridge pleaded guilty in October to 11 counts of bank robbery, one count of carjacking and one count of escape. In addition to prison, Etheridge was sentenced to three years of supervised release and must pay $18,397.90 in restitution, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Etheridge escaped May 18, 2017, from the Northwest Regional Re-entry Center, a contracted correctional facility in Portland. He was in custody there for a federal bank robbery conviction, the news release states.
Between June 2, 2017, and July 19, 2017, he robbed six banks in Portland and attempted to rob a seventh. He also robbed a bank in Gresham, Ore., another in Tacoma and the Umpqua Bank branch at 1408 S.E. 164th Ave. in Vancouver. He stole $5,000 in the Vancouver bank robbery, court records show.
On July 25, 2017, Etheridge, at gunpoint, stole $18,120 from a credit union in Las Vegas. He demanded that one of the tellers leave the credit union with him, then carjacked a vehicle with two people inside. At his request, the victims dropped him off at a Harley Davidson dealership to purchase a motorcycle as a getaway vehicle. Law enforcement arrested him at the dealership, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The case was investigated by the FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Dickinson prosecuted the case.
