Second Suspect Pleads Guilty in Hartland Bank Robbery

A Genesee County man faces sentencing next month after he pleaded guilty Friday in Livingston County Circuit Court to robbing the in Hartland in 2007.

Jason T. Patterson of Burton appeared before Judge Michael Hatty in 44th Circuit Court in Howell, where he admitted entering the bank with an accomplice March 5, 2007, and escaping with more than $5,000 in cash in a Pontiac Montana minivan. Hatty will sentence Patterson at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 11.

Howell lawyer Mack Spickard, a public defender who acted as Patterson's attorney, declined to comment on the plea agreement after the hearing.

The maximum sentence for bank robbery is life imprisonment, but prosecutors plan to recommend that Patterson's partner in the robbery, Keith A. Williams, 31, of Grand Blanc, receive three to 15 years, according to a report in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. June 24 to the same charge and will be sentenced July 28.

Assistant Prosecutor Angela DelVero declined to comment on the case after Friday's hearing, referring all questions to Prosecutor David Morse, who was unavailable.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte says he's glad the case has finally been resolved after four exhaustive years of police work.

"There was some good police on the case, by our own department and other police departments," Bezotte said. "It brings closure to the case."

Bezotte said that, historically, Livingston County has had an excellent track record on bank robberies with arrests and convictions.

"We've had a 100 percent success rate," Bezotte says.  

However, as in the Hartland heist, such cases can sometimes take years to solve.  

On the day of the robbery, two men entered the TCF Bank branch at 10065 E. Highland Rd. wearing hooded sweatshirts, ball caps and sunglasses. One of them placed a note at the teller window demanding cash.

The case remained unsolved for nearly four years until January, when a citizen saw a surveillance video on the Sheriff's Department website that had been taken at the adjacent to the bank branch. The video showed one of the men stealing a pair of sunglasses from the pharmacy on the morning of the robbery.