Escaped prisoner admits to bank robbery

Published 11:38 pm Tuesday, June 22, 2010

By The Associated Press

An escaped convict who was accused of robbing banks in Georgia and three other states has pleaded guilty to armed robbery and faces a possible life in prison sentence.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said 38-year-old Anthony Ray Artrip of Ashland, Ky. was accused of going on a bank-robbing spree in 2007 after escaping from a Kentucky jail.

One of those robberies was on Sept. 27, 2007 at the Regions Bank in Calhoun.

Artrip was charged with walking into the bank carrying a handgun and pointed it at the tellers. He told them not to worry, called them tellers “ladies” and “sweetie” and told them to have a good day as he left with nearly $20,000.

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Artrip is to be sentenced Aug. 27 by U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy.