Future negro rocket scientists get 20 years for robbing bank to pay tuition

[White Boy]

:lol:http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/NEWS01/712040323/1077/COL02

Robbers: Tuition was motive
Students plead guilty, face 20 years

BY SHARON COOLIDGE | SCOOLIDGE@ENQUIRER.COM

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Andrew Butler should be a junior at the University of Toledo, where the theater major would be starring in school plays, maybe one day headed to Hollywood or Broadway.

Christopher Avery should be a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, an engineering major with a lucrative career ahead.

Instead, the men are going to prison for at least 20 years because they tried to raise tuition money with two armed holdups last summer.

Avery, 22, of College Hill, and Butler, 20, of Milford, pleaded guilty Monday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to two charges of aggravated robbery and six charges of kidnapping.

Butler pleaded guilty to an additional charge of vandalism stemming from damage done to the Hamilton County Justice Center after his arrest.

"Why?" Judge Steve Martin asked the men, who had no criminal records. "You're in college, I don't understand."

Both men cited tuition.

Butler said tuition went up so his scholarships and financial aid were not enough.

"I was stressed out," he said. "I needed more money for college."

Avery said an internship at Kroger fell through, leaving no money for summer classes.

"I was strapped for cash," he said. "I thought I had nothing to lose."

The men said they faced two options: steal the money or drop out.

That's when the two friends hatched a plan to get the cash they needed.

A year of school at the University of Cincinnati costs roughly $9,400. It's less at Toledo, but still almost $7,000.

Armed and wearing black masks, the men first tried to rob Ohio Checkcashers on Reading Road in Mount Auburn on July 16.

They couldn't penetrate the store's security, even after firing four shots at the bullet-resistant glass, Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Goodyear said.

They ran off and tried again the next afternoon, this time at Valley Central Savings Bank on Benson Street in Reading, Goodyear said.

Numerous customers were in the bank when the men stormed in, again masked and armed, Goodyear said.

They escaped with more than $130,000, Goodyear said.

They stashed the money at home, but then got sloppy, according to Goodyear.

They were caught switching cars in Lincoln Heights.

A witness who thought they were acting suspiciously called police, Goodyear said.

Prosecutors agreed Monday to a 20-year prison term for both, though Martin is not bound by that agreement at sentencing Dec. 27.

The men are being held in the Hamilton County Justice Center without bond.

 

[LaKooneshia]

Famblies Complain Sentence Is Too Severe

Dey Wuz Always Such Good Boys​

Andrew Butler and Christopher Avery asked for mercy Thursday when they apologized for two armed robberies last summer.

They got some advice instead.

“You’re going to do the 20 years,"� Judge Steven Martin told the men. “But there is still a purpose for your lives. It’s up to you to find it."�

Before the robberies, Butler and Avery’s relatives believed the young men already had found that purpose. They had stayed out of trouble, were attending college and had career plans.

But the two men now say they were broke and needed money for college tuition, which cost them each between $7,000 and $9,000 a year.

That, they say, is when they got the idea to rob a bank.

“It was a lapse of judgment,"� Butler told the judge before he was sentenced Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. “It was completely out of character."�

Whatever their reason, prosecutors say, Butler and Avery broke the law and endangered the lives of many people.

They first tried to rob Ohio Checkcashers in Mount Auburn on July 16. They wore black masks and fired four shots at the store’s bullet-resistant glass, but they couldn’t force their way inside.

The next day, they robbed the Valley Central Savings Bank in Reading. The men again wore masks and pointed guns at customers before fleeing with more than $130,000.

They were caught later when someone called police after seeing the two men switch cars in Lincoln Heights.

Friends and relatives packed the courtroom Thursday and several complained that the 20-year sentence – part of a plea bargain with prosecutors – was too severe.

“It’s a long time for someone who had a bright future ahead of him,"� said Avery’s father, Charles Avery. “The longer you’re in there, the harder it is coming out."�

Marilyn Wallace, a family friend, said the sentence is unfair compared to punishments handed out to others. She said rapists and others who physically harm people often get less prison time.

“It embitters me,"� she said. “It makes me mad."�

Under Ohio law, the use of a gun in a crime mandates a tougher prison sentence, adding at least three years to each offense.

Others said they had hoped and prayed for a lesser sentence, but they understood why the judge imposed 20 years.

“I would have to say it’s probably fair. Harsh but fair,"� said Dwight Wilkins, a friend of Avery’s family. “His actions were inexcusable."�

Even so, Wilkins said it was difficult to watch a young man he liked and knew for years go to prison. “Chris didn’t drink. He didn’t swear,"� Wilkins said. “This was just unbelievable."�

The Rev. Walter D. Buckner, pastor of Miami Baptist Church in Milford, said the same about Butler. He said the young man attended church regularly and seemed on his way to a good career and life.

“It really was a shock that this happened,"� Buckner said. “It’s just a mystery to me."� Martin agreed the robberies were out of character for both Avery, 22, of College Hill, and Butler, 20, of Milford.

Neither had a criminal record and both were college students. Avery, a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, majored in engineering. Butler, a University of Toledo junior, was a theater major.

“I would like to ask for mercy,"� Avery told Martin. “We’re two young men who made a mistake. I think we should get a second chance."�

Martin, however, said the lives they led before the crimes did not excuse their actions.

“It makes it all the more incredible you would turn to robbing people, to terrorizing people,"� Martin said. “If you get to that point, robbing people isn’t the answer. It never has been and it never will be