Fletcher M. Dorsett, Jr., age 52, pleaded guilty to bank robbery, in connection with nine bank robberies and attempted robberies committed while on escape status from a halfway house and after his release, while he was on supervised release for a previous federal bank robbery conviction.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Chief Melissa R. Hyatt of the Baltimore County Police Department; Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department; Chief Edward Jackson of the Annapolis Police Department; Interim Chief Hector Velez of the Prince George’s County Police Department; and Chief Peter Newsham of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
According to his guilty plea, Dorsett was previously convicted of federal bank robbery charges and sentenced to 96 months of incarceration, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In May of 2019, Dorsett was placed at a halfway house to serve the final portion of his sentence, in an effort to segue from the Bureau of Prisons to life in the community.
On July 25, 2019, Dorsett did not return to the halfway house and was placed in escape status. Dorsett was subsequently arrested on a warrant relating to that escape on August 9, 2019, and held at Piedmont Regional Jail in Virginia until he was released on September 24, 2019. Dorsett admitted that he robbed a bank in Baltimore on July 29, 2019, while he was on escape status.
After his arrest and release on September 24, 2019, Dorsett continued to rob banks in Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Prince George’s County, and Washington, D.C., and attempted to rob two other banks. In all of these bank robberies, Dorsett used a note that threatened that he had a gun, and stole a total of more than $14,000.
Specifically, on July 29, 2019, while on escape status, Dorsett robbed a bank in the 5000 block of Sinclair Lane in Baltimore. Between September 26 and October 28, 2019, Dorsett robbed a bank in the unit block of Massachusetts Avenue, NW in Washington, D.C.; banks on North Calvert Street and West Baltimore Street in Baltimore; a bank on Bay Bridge Road in Annapolis; and banks on Campbell Boulevard and Honeygo Boulevard in Nottingham, Maryland. On September 25, and 26, 2019, Dorsett attempted to rob a bank in the 9300 block of Lanham Severn Road in Lanham, Maryland and a bank in the 400 block of North Capitol Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C. As Dorsett left the bank on Honeygo Boulevard in Nottingham on October 28, 2019, an off-duty police officer who happened to be in the bank pursued and detained him until on-duty Baltimore County Police Officers arrived and arrested him.
Dorsett agreed to be interviewed by law enforcement and admitted to robbing the nine above-referenced banks in Maryland and Washington, DC. Dorsett also identified himself in various bank surveillance images captured during the robberies.
Dorsett and the government have agreed that, if the Court accepts the plea agreement, Dorsett will be sentenced to 150 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge George L. Russell, III has scheduled sentencing for January 26, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.
United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended the FBI, and the Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Annapolis, Prince George’s County and Metropolitan Police Departments for their work in the investigation and thanked the State’s Attorneys for Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Prince George’s County, and Anne Arundel County, and the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. for their assistance in the investigation and prosecution. Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok, who is prosecuting the federal case in Maryland.
