MADISON, WIS. - Jeffrey M. Anderson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Julian Thomas, 41, Madison, Wis., was found guilty today of armed bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during that crime of violence. The jury reached its verdict after 10 hours of deliberation following two days of testimony in federal court in Madison.
The evidence presented at trial showed that Thomas and James Thompson robbed People’s Community Bank in Plain, Wis., on October 7, 2014. Thompson, 29, also of Madison, pleaded guilty in federal court on October 6 to committing the bank robbery and doing so by brandishing a firearm. He testified during the trial about how he and Thomas jointly committed the robbery.
Based on witness testimony, Thomas forced the bank vice president to open the vault while Thompson held two bank tellers at gunpoint. After obtaining cash from the vault and the teller drawers, Thomas and Thompson ordered the three bank employees to the back of the bank, sprayed pepper spray in their eyes, and ordered them to kneel with their heads on the floor.
U.S. District Judge William Conley has scheduled Thomas’s sentencing for Jan. 10, 2018. Following Thompson’s guilty plea, his sentencing was scheduled for December 5. Each defendant faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in federal prison on the armed bank robbery charge, and a mandatory minimum penalty of seven years on the gun charge. Federal law requires that any penalty on the gun charge be served consecutive to any sentence imposed on the bank robbery charge.
The charges against Thomas and Thompson are the result of an investigation by the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Graber and Corey Stephan.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
