Windsor pleads guilty

By Cindy Landrum  

OCTOBER 1, 2009 6:19 a.m. (0)

In a three-page typewritten note he handed to a Greenville First Bank employee last February, Bruce Windsor said the bank was surrounded by men with AK-47s who were prepared for “all hell to break loose.”

Windsor, a former church deacon, pleaded guilty to bank robbery and brandishing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in federal court in Spartanburg on Thursday.

Windsor, who was the only person involved in the crime, held two bank employees hostage for about an hour and a half. Another bank employee hid under a desk.

Nobody was hurt.

“From the very first day, I’ve accepted responsibility,” Windsor told U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd during the 30-minute plea hearing. “I will accept my punishment.”

Windsor will be sentenced following the completion of a pre-sentencing report that will consider details of the crime and his lack of a criminal record. He faces up to 25 years on the bank robbery charge and another seven for the weapons charge.

Windsor told the judge financial problems led to the crime.

“Prior to my crime, I was suicidal,” he said. “I thank God I didn’t die because of this.”

Federal prosecutor Jeanne Howard told the court that Windsor was wearing a putty mask, a wig and sunglasses when he handed a bank employee a letter than claimed other people armed with assault rifles were surrounding the bank.

Windsor had a loaded .38 caliber handgun.

In the note, Windsor claimed to be wearing a transmitter so the men outside could hear everything.

The note said he and the men would kill if police were called or if anybody tried to leave the bank.

“We are prepared for all hell to break loose,” the note said. “Anybody trying to leave will be shot in the back.”

The note also said the robbers knew the names, addresses and schedules of the bank employees’ spouse and children.

“If everyone stays calm, everybody lives,” Howard quoted from the note.

At one point, Windsor had a bank employee call 911. He told police to “back off or it’s going to get ugly in here,” Howard told the court.

When Windsor told police his name, the bank employees realized they knew him because he was one of their customers, Howard said.

After the employees recognized him, Windsor made a phone call to his wife and then let the bank employees go.

When it was his turn to speak, Windsor told the judge he accepted responsibility for the crime.

“It’s been the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with,” he said.

Howard said that two clay masks, make-up, a plastic bag with a wet washcloth and a bar of soap was found in Windsor’s car. Police also found a note Windsor wrote to his family explaining why he did what he did.

Howard said that in an interview with law enforcement, Windsor said he had been thinking about robbing a bank since November 2007.

U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins said the true satisfaction from the guilty plea comes in giving the terrified bank employees some solace.

“This was not a snap,” Wilkins said. “This was a well-planned, well-organized event.”

Windsor, who was a deacon at Brushy Creek Baptist Church who was previously described by his preacher as a “Godly man,” looked at his wife, who was sitting in the front row of the courtroom, as he was escorted out.

Windsor’s family members declined to comment as they left the courthouse.