Convicted Armed Robber Gets 45 Years

SNOW HILL - Convicted armed robber Kevin Fuller, who held up an Ocean City bank in March 2006 by threatening employees with a claw hammer, was sentenced yesterday to 45 years in jail, of which he is guaranteed to serve over 37 years.

Fuller, 36, of no fixed address, was convicted in January on two counts of armed robbery, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of felony theft after a Worcester County jury deliberated for under an hour after a two-day trial in Snow Hill, and a pre-sentence investigation was ordered. Back in Circuit Court yesterday for sentencing, Fuller was given the maximum 25 years in jail without the possibility of parole on the armed robbery charge and another 20 years for the other charges, of which he will serve a minimum of 12 and a half years.

Fuller was identified as the suspect in an armed robbery of the Calvin B. Taylor Bank on 20^th Street on March 24, 2006. He entered the bank wielding a claw hammer and ordered five employees onto the ground before stealing an undisclosed amount of cash totaling several thousand dollars.

Fuller then fled the resort in a taxi before boarding a commercial bus bound for Las Vegas. The cross-country bus made a scheduled stop in Flagstaff, Ariz. where Fuller robbed another bank. He was taken into custody as he prepared to re-board the bus to Las Vegas and was found with the weapon and the stolen money from the Flagstaff bank robbery.

Meanwhile, Ocean City Police detectives were able to identify Fuller as the suspect in the Taylor Bank robbery from surveillance tapes.

While they didn't immediately find Fuller and he was able to escape to Arizona where he struck again, identifying him from the Ocean City bank's surveillance tapes allowed resort police to locate Fuller's storage unit on 9^th Street where they found the clothes he was wearing at the time of the robbery along with much of the stolen money.

When Fuller was arrested in Flagstaff, local law enforcement agencies obtained warrants for his arrest in connection with the Ocean City robbery, but he could not be returned to Worcester County until the charges against him in Arizona were resolved. The charges against Fuller in Arizona were ultimately dropped last September, opening the door for his extradition to Worcester County.