Bank robber receives life sentence | News

A Madison County Judge has sentenced convicted bank robber Maurice King to life in prison.

King protested and maintained his innocence outside of Judge Dennis O'Dell's courtroom, insisting he wasn't in Alabama on the April 2011 date in question. Prosecutors, and the jury, disagreed. "He was basically the wheelman.. the getaway driver" said Assistant District Attorney Jay Town.

Town says that King and David Lewis Fifer stole more than $24,000 from the Regions Bank in Meridianville before crashing their stolen rental car into a cemetery in Tennessee.

King disputes that, even after his conviction. "I'm innocent" King said as he was led out of court, towards jail.

Under Alabama's Habitual Offender Act, King, who had two prior felony convictions, was sentenced to life in prison.  Defense attorney Larry Marsili says he plans to look over his notes from the trial and see what his next move will be. "Mr. King knew going into trial that if he were convicted of this offense, that that would be the only sentence." The prior convictions were from 1981 and 1995 and were in Texas and Tennessee. "This was the first time he'd ever run in with the law in Alabama" Town said. "And it will be the last."