A man from Washington State who is approaching retirement age will also be sent to federal prison after it was revealed that he had stolen at least eleven banks. The last bank was targeted after the man was given compassionate release from a previous sentence for the same kind of crime.
In April, 61-year-old Clifford Court Uptegrove entered a guilty plea to armed bank robbery. He was given a sentence on Thursday that would see him imprisoned for the next 280 months, or 23 years and 4 months.
In summary, the punishment is essentially a compromise between the twenty-year term that the man’s defense lawyer, who has now been found guilty, wanted the court to impose and the twenty-year sentence that federal prosecutors had demanded.
The defendant was most recently taken into custody on December 17, 2021, following a heist at a Hermiston, Oregon, Umpqua Bank branch. According to a press statement from the Oregon U.S. Attorney’s Office, he made off with $13,690 in cash after pulling out a revolver and demanding huge sums. He then attempted to steal a truck.
A local policeman noticed Uptegrove shortly after, pursued him for a little while before giving up and was taken into custody without further incident.
According to a courtroom report by The Oregonian, U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez told Uptegrove during his sentence hearing on Thursday, “Maybe you shouldn’t rob banks.”
The sardonic criticism from the court seemed to be a direct allusion to an audio exchange that was captured between the bank thief and his sister while they were being held captive in the Umatilla County Jail a few days after the theft.
Following Uptegrove’s pandemic-era compassionate release, approximately 14 months had passed since his last bank robbery. Federal prosecutors claimed that Uptegrove’s age (57 at the time of the leniency decision) and a medically diagnosed asthma condition put him at a higher risk of catching COVID-19.
Senior District Judge Marsha J. Pechman of the United States stated in November 2020 that Uptegrove had “extraordinary and compelling” reasons to be released from jail.
The court noted his usually good record of behavior as an inmate, including the completion of multiple custodial betterment and educational programs, in addition to medical issues that aligned with pandemic era fears.
Still, his record of discipline was far from perfect. Only the final nine years were free of any offenses, but he completed sixteen and a half years of a previous sentence for armed bank robbery after being found guilty in 2004. Nevertheless, the Seattle judge was impressed by the record.
However, it seemed that the man was unchangeable.
The defendant said, “Give me all your f—— money,” while pointing a gun at a cashier during what was probably his last bank heist. big sum of money, all the $100s… All of it,” reads a 15-page sentencing letter that federal prosecutors submitted on September 11.
A federal grand jury convening in Portland on January 19, 2022, returned a three-count indictment against Uptegrove, accusing him of one count each of armed bank robbery, carrying a firearm during a violent crime, and having a firearm while a convicted felon.
Nevertheless, during the Thursday hearing, the bank robber’s defense attorney attempted to use a product-of-his-environment defense in an attempt to win late-stage mercy in terms of sentence.
The client’s father “raised him to rob banks and do drugs,” according to attorney Lisa Ludwig.
The defendant’s sister confirmed this perception of her brother’s difficult upbringing. According to The Oregonian, she testified in court that their alcoholic father taught them how to rob banks, started giving her beer when she was three years old, and started injecting heroin into Uptegrove when he was twelve.
Ludwig added that when her client, a heroin addict, robbed the bank in Hermiston, a rapidly expanding medium-sized city just south of the Washington State line, he was under the effect of drugs.
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Even as the court acknowledged the bank robber’s drug problems and used a little irony, he chastised Uptegrove for his actions on that particular day.
“People that get guns put in their faces, they don’t care about what caused that,” Hernandez stated. “That doesn’t matter to them what your problem was.”
Uptegrove attempted to take over a retired couple’s pickup truck with his gun, but he was unsuccessful. He also pointed his revolver at the bank cashier.
