Ex-Army Ranger, bank robber gets 20 years added to his sentence for hit-man plot, assault
By APTuesday, March 9, 2010
20 years added to sentence of ex-Army Ranger
SEATTLE — A former Army Ranger originally sentenced to 24 years for leading a 2006 military-style bank robbery in Washington state has been given another 20 years for assault and trying to hire a hit man to kill a federal prosecutor.
After his sentencing Monday in federal court, 23-year-old Luke Sommer faces 44 years in prison.
The former Peachland, British Columbia, resident pleaded guilty in January to assault for attacking a robbery co-defendant behind bars and to offering an undercover FBI agent as much as $20,000 to kill an assistant U.S. attorney.
Sommer masterminded the 2006 robbery of a Bank of America branch in Tacoma. The five robbers wore soft body armor in case of a shootout with police. Several carried AK-47 machine guns.
They escaped with more than $50,000, but arrests came quickly after a witness noted their license plate.
