MARYLAND MAN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT
FOR ARMED HARRISBURG AREA BANK ROBBERY

Martin C. Carlson, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced that a Maryland man has been sentenced today to 20 years imprisonment for robbing a Harrisburg area bank at gunpoint last January.

AARON DOUGLAS KNILL, age 29, formerly of Frederick, Maryland, was sentenced to the 20 year term by United States District Court Judge Christopher C. Conner in Harrisburg. Knill was indicted earlier this year with the January 18, 2007, armed robbery of the Mid-Penn Bank at 4622 Carlisle Pike, Hampton Township, Pennsylvania, which netted Knill approximately $5,900. Knill was arrested in Frederick a few hours after the robbery after an alert eyewitness recorded the license plate number of Knill’s getaway car, a Black 2007 Nissan Maxima. The FBI traced the vehicle to an Enterprise car rental agency in Frederick where Knill had rented the vehicle in December 2006. Knill was arrested by local law enforcement officers when he returned to the car rental agency to pay delinquent car rental charges.

On July 9, 2007, Knill pleaded guilty before Judge Connor to one count of Armed Bank Robbery pursuant to a plea agreement in which Knill specifically agreed to be sentenced to 240 months’ incarceration. In exchange, the government dismissed two other counts, Use of a Firearm in Connection with a Crime of Violence and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. Knill was previously convicted in 1998 on federal bank robbery charges in the District of Maryland and served a 10-year sentence for that offense before his release from confinement during the summer of 2006.

The plea agreement allows Knill to appeal Judge Connor’s pre-trial ruling denying Knill’s motion to suppress evidence in the case. On June 29, 2007, Judge Conner ruled that evidence seized pursuant to a search of Knill’s Frederick residence the night of his arrest, including $3,500 cash and a .38 Smith & Wesson handgun, as well as his confession to FBI agents the following day, was admissible at his trial. The plea agreement affords Knill the right to withdraw his guilty plea if he is successful on appeal.

Carlson noted the case was successfully investigated by the Harrisburg and Frederick Offices of the FBI, in conjunction with the Hampton Township, PA and Frederick, Maryland Police Departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Douglas Daniel.

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