Man gets 27 years for robberies

By JOE PERRY
Item Senior Staff Writer
jperry@theitem.com

A 30-year-old Sumter man was sentenced to 27 years in prison Wednesday after authorities said he robbed the same bank twice, but noted that $330,000 taken from the second heist has never been recovered.

Deonta Lamont Carpenter was sentenced to 328 months in federal prison, according to a press release from the FBI, after he pled guilty to robbing the Bank of America, 1141 Broad St., on two separate occasions.

On Nov. 4, 2004, Carpenter and Joshua Michael Cogdell, also of Sumter, stole more than $20,000 at gunpoint, the release said. Carpenter and Cogdell’s getaway car was spotted by a state trooper and Carpenter fled into some woods near Turbeville Correctional Institute, but was captured after an all day manhunt with State Law Enforcement Division tracking dogs, who found the stolen and hidden loot.

Carpenter robbed the same bank on July 5, 2005 — three days after he was released on bond for the first robbery — and absconded with $330,000. He was caught in Columbia a week later, but the money was never found.



Contact Senior Staff Writer Joe Perry at jperry@theitem.com or (803) 774-1272.