Fayetteville bank robbers get decades behind bars

Rodney Atawan Brown, 30, was sentenced this week to 32 years in prison, and Larry Rodgers Jr. to 17 years in connection with the Nov. 1, 2010, robbery of the First Citizens Bank at 3604 Ramsey St. Both men were ordered to pay $20,789.42 in restitution and will be kept under supervision for five years after their release from prison.

A federal jury convicted the pair of armed bank robbery, conspiring to commit bank robbery and using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Prosecutors said that Brown carried a black semiautomatic handgun into the bank and threatened to kill the tellers. He jumped over the counter, grabbed money from the tellers' drawers and stuffed it into a duffel bag carried by Rodgers.

When the two sped away in a getaway car, a dye pack exploded in the bag, staining Rogers' jeans, prosecutors said. After a car and foot chase, officers found him hiding in a trash can.

Authorities said Brown was caught a week later after a high-speed chase in South Carolina.

Brown has spent nearly nine years behind bars since 1998 on 13 state convictions, including conspiracy to commit armed robbery and being a habitual felon, according to state Division of Adult Correction records.