Released by the Office of Solicitor Barry Barnette.
A Woodruff man received a 17 - year prison sentence today for robbing a local bank.
William Daniel Bowman, 37, pleaded guilty to bank robbery. Bowman admitted to robbing the Arthur State Bank, 595 N. Main St., on Jan. 14, 2020. Bowman entered the bank about 2:20 p.m. and demanded money in a note passed to a teller. Bowman collected a sum of money and fled the parking lot in a late model 4-door Chevrolet Cobalt.
Bowman didn’t brandish a weapon but he held his hand in his pocket and led the teller to believe he was armed. The hold-up was recorded on the bank’s video surveillance system.
Woodruff police and SLED agents arrested Bowman two days after the hold-up at a Trammel Road property. During the investigation, officers recovered the getaway car hidden under a tarp. Bowman asked someone to paint the vehicle for him.
Bowman’s prior criminal record included multiple convictions for drug and property crimes offenses in North Carolina. Bowman will serve 85 percent of Circuit Judge Mark Hayes’ prison sentence before he is eligible for release. The new prison sentence includes restitution for the bank.
For more information, contact Murray Glenn at 809-4892 or mglenn@spartanburgcounty.org.
