Bank robber sentenced to 184 years

SEATTLE – In 21 years of practicing law, Stephan Illa had seen five of his clients sentenced to life in prison – each convicted of aggravated murder.

Add one more: a bank robber who, at least physically, didn’t harm anyone.

Ivy Byrd Gaines, 41, was sentenced Friday to 184 years in prison for 10 robberies, eight of them armed, during which he took $67,000. The sentence was so long, even federal prosecutors called it a “tragedy,” though one of the defendant’s own making.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly expressed some reservations about the length of the prison term, which consisted almost entirely of mandatory minimum sentences Congress has passed for using a firearm during a crime of violence.

The sentence could not be considered “cruel and unusual,” which would be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment, Zilly said.

“Would I impose a sentence as long were there no statutory minimums? No,” the judge said. “Would I no doubt impose a sentence that would keep you in jail for the rest of your natural life? Yes.”

Gaines was convicted in March of 18 felony counts related to the robberies, which took place between June 2002 and October 2003 at banks, credit unions and check-cashing businesses from Seattle to Lacey, near Olympia. For the first count of using a firearm in a violent crime, he got an automatic seven years; for each additional count he got an automatic 25 years.

Illa argued that while 25 years might not be considered an absurd punishment for using a gun during a robbery, the collection of 25-year minimums created a cruel-and-unusual result.

Zilly disagreed, saying that each robbery terrorized different bank tellers, and that Gaines should be punished for each crime. If 25 years is a just punishment for one of the armed robberies, then it is a just sentence for the others.

Gaines addressed the court in a long and at times rambling manner, at one point apologizing to the judge and at another saying he was patenting a device that would end world hunger and homelessness.

He continued to profess his innocence as he did at trial, when he blamed the robberies on a mysterious character named “Fat Joe,” whose existence was never verified.

Zilly said he was fed up with Gaines’ refusal to take responsibility. Gaines was arrested after he was caught with $15,000 in a pillowcase following one robbery, and tellers at each institution identified him as the “pillowcase robber,” as he came to be known.

“Your testimony, sir, was not credible, and your statements today, your professions of innocence, are not well received by this court,” he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Friedman and Tessa Gorman noted that although no one was hurt during the robberies, several tellers and other witnesses were terrorized. In one case, a teller’s two young daughters were in a bank helping take down holiday decorations when Gaines burst in. As he pointed the gun at the teller, the girls clutched her legs, screaming for their lives.

Some tellers quit their jobs following the robberies, Gorman said.

“It’s not about the amount of money he took at all,” she said. “It’s using the gun. These people are terrorized. It’s a living nightmare for them.”