Thursday, April 4, 2013

Sun-Times: Bank robber gets life sentence for murdering teller

Surveillance pic of the May 2007 robbery released by FBI - Sun-Times
It's been almost six years since a deadly bank robbery at the neighborhood Illinois Service Federal branch on 87th & King Drive. One of the perpetrators have finally received his prison sentence:
A bank robber who murdered a teller during a botched heist on the South Side nearly six years ago has been sentenced to life in prison by a judge who called his case “a horrific tragedy.”

But the harshest words for killer David Vance came from the teller’s father, who branded him “vermin” during an emotional sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Vance, 34, shot dead 23-year-old Tramaine Gibson, a father of two, when Gibson said he couldn’t open the vault at the Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan in the Chatham neighborhood on May 22, 2007.

Gibson’s dad, Verton Gibson, has been attending court hearings ever since. On Wednesday, he stood just a few feet away from Vance and loudly asked Federal Judge Joan Gotschall to give “this vermin what he deserves.”

“Do what Tramaine did when he went to work that day — do your job,” he added, urging a life sentence as an impassive Vance looked on.

Gotschall replied that the law gave her no choice but to impose a mandatory life sentence without parole, plus an additional 32 years.
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Two men who robbed the bank with Vance are expected to be sentenced to 20-year terms under a plea deal.
I wrote about this on my other blog 6 years ago and it was news when I returned from a brief trip to Texas that year. Alas because of many changes two of those links no longer work and one of those links at least contained some news video.

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