Lowcountry's Serial Bank Robber Sentenced

Kelvin Barton, 37, of North Charleston was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison Thursday by District Court Judge Richard M. Gergel, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles.

Barton pleaded guilty on Feb. 27 to the armed robbery of five Charleston area banks between July 2010 and June 2011.

Barton was charged with robbing the National Bank of South Carolina at 616 N. Main St., Summerville, on July 23, 2010; the South Carolina State Credit Union at 6750 Rivers Avenue in North Charleston on Sept. 2, 2010; the National Bank of South Carolina at 1870 Sam Rittenberg Blvd., Charleston, on April 5, 2011; the SunTrust Bank at 8610 Dorchester Road, North Charleston, on May 27, 2011; and the First Federal Bank at 3628 Savannah Highway, Charleston, on June 7, 2011.

The judge sentenced Barton to 121 months for the robberies and added a consecutive sentence of 30 months because Barton violated the terms of his supervised release when he committed the crimes, according to the release. He was on supervised release for the 1999 armed robbery of a Summerville bank for which he received a sentence of 135 months in 2000.

Barton was arrested on June 7, 2011 after the last of the series of robberies by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office. Barton led officers on a car chase that ended in a crash that injured three people.