(TNS) — A York man is going back to jail after he robbed a Harrisburg bank six days after being released on parole for a near-identical bank robbery in 2010.
Dauphin County Judge Deborah Curcillo tacked on four to eight years in state prison to his previous sentence of 10 to 20 years for walking into the M&T Bank Oct. 13, 2020, and demanding cash in 20 and 50 dollar bills.
Preston Grimes, 49, spent only five days on parole at Harrisburg Community Connections — a halfway house run where defendants are able to get jobs and cannot leave without permission — when he walked out.
On the sixth day, Grimes walked into the Members’ First Federal Credit Union in Strawberry Square and demanded the money.
The crime is nearly identical to the bank robbery he committed in 2010, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Amy Schwarzl.
During the first robbery, Grimes entered Integrity Bank on Market Way West, York, approached a teller and handed her a green post-it note.
“This isn’t a [expletive] game count out 3500 20’s, 50’s and 100’s and know (sic) one will get hurt,” the note said, according to court documents.
When the teller did not have that amount, Grimes told her to give him all the 20 dollar bills she had before leaving, court documents said.
The state’s Rules of Criminal Procedure usually prohibit prosecutors from bringing prior convictions into evidence on new charges. However, Schwarzl said she was able to introduce testimony from the bank teller in the 2010 case to a Dauphin County jury during a one-day trial in October in which they convicted Grimes.
Police matched the sweatshirt Grimes was wearing at the halfway house to the sweatshirt he was seen wearing at the time of the robbery.
Now that Grimes has been sentenced on the second case, he will need to appear before the parole board, which will determine what additional time he will have to serve because he committed a crime while out on parole.
Grimes has been in trouble for robberies and burglaries since he was 18 years old, Schwarzl said. This is his fifth robbery conviction, she said.
