A convicted serial bank robber begged a federal judge to keep him locked up for the maximum term after he attacked three branches in Florida — just two weeks after being released from prison for another bank robbery.
Terry Meach, 42, was sentenced last Thursday to 20 years in prison – the maximum for bank robbery – after spending the long time behind bars that would not only curb his urges and normalize his life, but also keep the public safe improve.
“Can you please consider giving me the maximum or most time so I can get back to my normal life in a controlled environment? Prison protects me from my own self-destruction and keeps the community outside safer,” the repeat offender wrote in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Rodney Smith in September: according to the Miami Herald.
‘I know I’m going to screw up again. I always have the same results, 100% truth. I love the life I have in prison. I had a family and good jobs. Please understand me. I know right from wrong, and I’m not crazy at all,” Meach added. “I just know myself better than anyone.”
The thief admitted to stealing $2,419 from a Truist Bank in Hollywood on Feb. 23 after demanding money from a teller and claiming he had a gun, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said. said in a press release.
Four days later, Meach entered the Fifth Third Bank in Fort Lauderdale and told the teller he had a bomb before fleeing and stealing $2,379 from a Truist Bank down the street.
He also told the Truist banker that he had a gun during the robbery, prosecutors said.
The recidivist bandit was also convicted in April 2012 of robbing a TD Bank in Fort Lauderdale and trying to steal from Suntrust Bank in Miami, for which he served nearly four years.
Eight days after his release in March 2016, Meach robbed another Suntrust Bank in Fort Lauderdale, prosecutors said.
Two days after that, he stole from a Chase Bank in Doral.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison and released between February 9 and 14 before committing his latest series of crimes, prosecutors said.
Meach pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery and one count of attempted bank robbery.
