Man robs bank to escape wife, sentenced to home-confinement
Lawrence John Ripple took the guilty plea in January.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A 70-year-old Kansas man who robbed a bank last September and told police that he was hoping to get caught so he would get prison time to escape his wife, was sentenced Tuesday to six months of home confinement after pleading guilty, The Kansas City Star reported.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to probation after he accepted the plea deal in January.
Ripple went to the Bank of Labor -- a block from police headquarters -- last September. He gave a note to a teller saying he had a gun and was demanding money. Ripple took the money - $2,924 - and then sat in the lobby where he told a guard he was the "guy he was looking for".
Officers arrived quickly. An FBI agent wrote in the affidavit that Ripple had earlier been arguing with his wife. He told investigators he wrote the note in front of his wife, telling her he would “rather be in jail than at home.”
The Kansas City Star reports Ripple told the judge Tuesday that heart surgery left him depressed and unlike himself before he robbed the bank.
His public defender told the court that Ripple had lived a law-abiding life and was in a stable relationship with his wife. He has four step children, the report said.
He was accompanied by his wife in court and said he did not mean to frighten the teller. He appeared remorseful in court and apologized to both the bank and the teller.
The Associated Press contributed to this report