WOODRUFF MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR MAULDIN BANK ROBBERY

Columbia, South Carolina---- United States Attorney REGINALD I. LLOYD stated today that LEROY AUGUSTUS LANE, age 50, of Woodruff, South Carolina, was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Anderson, South Carolina, for bank robbery, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2113(a). United States District Judge G. Ross Anderson of Anderson sentenced LANE to life imprisonment.

Lane was convicted last May after a jury trial. On August 24, 2006, Lane robbed the First Citizens Bank on West Butler Road in Mauldin wearing a ski mask. A witness saw Lane coming out of the bank and followed him to a nearby drug store where Lane had parked his getaway car. The witness wrote down the license plate number and relayed the information to the Mauldin police, who traced the car to Lane.

The case was investigated by agents of the FBI, Mauldin Police Department, Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, and Greenville County Department of Public Safety. Assistant United States Attorney Jeanne Howard of the Greenville office handled the case.