Jeffrey Garrett, 36, of Trenton, sat next to his attorney David Schafer but did not speak during the hearing before Judge Peter Sheridan.
Jeffrey L Garrett was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today for robbing the same Hamilton bank twice in 9 months.
HAMILTON– A Trenton man who shot a teller at the Chase Bank branch in Hamilton during a robbery in August 2011 and fled in a vehicle he carjacked with the victim still locked in the trunk was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today.
Jeffrey Garrett, 36, of Trenton, sat next to his attorney David Schafer but did not speak during the hearing before U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan.
Garrett brandished a silver revolver and demanded money at 10 a.m. in the Chase Bank on Klockner Road on Aug. 23, 2011. After the woman handed over the cash, Garrett demanded more money and threatened to shoot the woman.
During the incident Garrett’s gun went off and the teller was shot in the abdomen. Garrett used a vehicle he stole in a carjacking more than four hours earlier to flee the bank while the carjacking victim remained wounded in the trunk.
Garrett stole the car at 5:30 a.m. in Trenton and pistol whipped the 61-year-old driver before binding his hands and forcing him in the trunk. As he pistol whipped the man, Garrett's gun fired. The bullet grazed the man's head and left him with a serious wound.
Garrett drove around for several hours with the wounded man in the trunk before robbing the Chase bank. After the bank robbery, Garrett abandoned the car in the parking lot of a mall in Moorestown, and the carjacking victim managed to free himself.
The carjacking victim identified Garrett to police after seeing a television news report about the bank robbery while he was recovering in the hospital.
Garrett remained a fugitive until he was arrested two months later in Florida.
The robbery marked the second time Garrett held up the same Chase Bank branch in Hamilton. In November 2010, Garrett handed a teller a note that read “I have a gun, give me all the 50 and 100 dollar bills.”
He showed the teller a black handgun and fled from the bank with the cash. He was caught on surveillance video and investigators found that Garrett had used a credit card at the bank’s ATM just before the robbery.
Although he was charged with the robbery two days later, he remained on the lam.
Garrett pleaded guilty in August to one count of carjacking and one count of discharging a firearm during a violent crime. Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph Gribko and John E. Clabby prosecuted the case.
In addition to the 30 year term Garrett will have a five year period of supervised release after he is freed from prison.
Previous coverage:
• FBI seeks Hamilton bank robber for two heists, possibly for Trenton carjacking
• Suspect named in Hamilton armed bank robbery