Two found guilty in 2013 bank robbery
By From staff reports
Published in News on July 14, 2015 1:46 PM
WILMINGTON - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that Monday in federal court that a jury found Robert Earl Mays and Paris Cordava Williams of the District of Columbia guilty of bank robbery and aiding and abetting.
Williams also was found guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Judge James C. Fox was the presiding United States District Court Judge.
According to the investigation, Mays and Williams were traveling with a third man, Ricky Franks, in a car rented by Franks from the District of Columbia.
On Nov. 13, 2014, close to closing time, Williams and Franks entered the PNC Bank at 3401 Raleigh Road Parkway in Wilson and robbed it.
Franks vaulted the teller counter and took $1,579 in cash from a teller's drawer.
When Franks grabbed the money, he also grabbed the GPS tracking device.
Franks and Williams hid with the money and tracking device in the trunk of the rental car. Mays drove the car a short distance away.
The Wilson Police Department was alerted of the robbery and also notified that the moving tracking device became stationary on Raleigh Road.
After a systematic search of cars in a stopped line of traffic near the bank by Wilson police officers, Franks and Williams were located with the bag of money, the GPS tracker and a firearm.
Franks pleaded guilty to bank robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon before trial.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the FBI, and the Wilson Police Department. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives also assisted.