Monday, Feb. 3, 2020 | 5:37 p.m.
A former federal prison escapee was sentenced Monday to 15 years behind bars for robbing banks in Oregon and Washington before he was arrested in a credit union heist and carjacking in Las Vegas in 2017, officials said.
William Etheridge, 57, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $18,000 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich said.
Etheridge was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey after pleading guilty in October to 11 federal charges of bank robbery, carjacking and escape, Trutanich said.
Etheridge’s court-appointed attorney, Paul Riddle, declined to comment.
Etheridge escaped in May 2017 from the Northwest Regional Re-entry Center in Portland, where he was serving a sentence for a bank robbery conviction, according to court documents.
He robbed 10 banks in two months in Oregon and Washington before authorities said he wielded a gun in the July 2017 robbery in Las Vegas.
Etheridge carjacked a vehicle with people inside and made them drive him to a Harley-Davidson dealership, where he was arrested while trying to buy a motorcycle to use for his getaway, prosecutors said.
