A Federal Way professional boxer who recruited and trained juveniles to commit eight bank robberies in Western Washington was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Vincent Gary Thompson, 31, will serve seven years in prison and was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.
Thompson and his partner, Robert Cal Adams, along with two juvenile males formed a bank robbery ring, dubbed the “Buddy Bandits.”
The group earned the name “Buddy Bandits” after they allegedly robbed the banks in pairs while the others waited outside. The “Buddy Bandits” used juveniles, including Thompson’s 15-year-old stepson, to rob banks, while the adults looked on, according to charging documents.
Thompson and Adams robbed Chase Bank on Canyon Road East in Puyallup on April 14, 2014. During the sentencing, U.S. District judge John C. Coughenour said Thompson’s sentence was appropriate because he involved juveniles in the crimes.
Thompson pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robber on Jan. 26. Adams was previously sentenced to 120 months for his involvement in a string of bank robberies, when three juveniles were provided with threatening notes and instruction on how to execute the bank robberies, according to U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.
Those robberies include the April 1, 2014 robbery of Chase Bank on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma; the April 7, 2014 robbery of US Bank on 176th Street, Puyallup; the April 9, 2014 robberies of Alaska Federal Credit Union branches in Renton and Kent; the April 9, 2014 robbery of US Bank on Pacific Highway in Des Moines; the April 10, 2014 robbery of Wells Fargo on 72nd Street East, Tacoma; the April 11, 2014 robbery of BECU on Pacific Highway South, Kent; and the April 11, 2014 robbery of Bank of America on Southwest 336th Street in Federal Way.
“Thompson’s choice to assist in sending juveniles to rob banks presents an extraordinary risk to the community, bank tellers, security guards, law enforcement and — most significantly — the juveniles themselves,” prosecutors wrote to the court In asking for the seven-year sentence. “This was quite literally a tragedy waiting to happen … for an adult to encourage juveniles to engage in serious criminal actions — simply because the adult wanted to be ‘paid’ without working — is deserving of a significant period of incarceration.”
Thompson started his professional boxing career with an impressive 13-0 record. The heavyweight lost his first pro fight in September 2014 to Charles Martin at the Little Creek Casino in Shelton.
He inked a five-year contract with Roy Englebrecht Promotions in late 2013. Thompson also fought on national television in 2012 on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, where he defeated Tennessee’s Joell Godfrey by unanimous decision.
Thompson also fought several times at the Emerald Queen Casino in Fife in the popular Battle at the Boat series.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Seattle Safe Streets Task Force, with assistance from multiple local police departments and the Washington State Department of Corrections.
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Hobbs, who is a senior deputy King County prosecutor specially designated to prosecute cases in federal court.
