Chicago — A man who robbed a bank in the Gold Coast earlier this year and then had a free-flowing conversation with FBI agents who took him into custody has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison.
Luther Fluker, 43, walked into Citibank, 1 East Oak, on February 22 and placed a note on the teller counter.
“Put the money in the bag,” read the note, which was written on an Illinois Lottery ticket. Officials said the teller put $2,400 into an envelope and handed it to him.
Chicago police spotted Fluker wearing clothes that matched the bank robber’s on the 800 block of North State about seven minutes after the holdup, the agent wrote. Cops saw Fluker toss something into a trash can, and they discovered a Citibank envelope containing the bank’s cash and the holdup note inside the rubbish bin, according to the FBI.
Fluker refused to talk with Chicago police but later agreed to have a conversation with FBI agents, explaining that he simply didn’t want to talk with CPD, an agent reported.
During the FBI interview, Fluker claimed he did nothing wrong except carry counterfeit bills that he uses to buy cigarettes at convenience stores, according to the agent. He identified himself in one surveillance image of the bank robber but said another picture of the same person walking away from the bank teller was not him, the agent wrote.
Fluker then asked how much time someone might get for a robbery like that.
According to court records, federal prosecutors recommended a sentence of 63 to 78 months to US District Judge Martha Pacold. Fluker’s attorney, citing his troubled childhood, asked for 40 months.
“Unfortunately for Mr. Fluker, when he was just 13 years old, the organization that recruited and provided guidance to him was the local street gang, which he joined to ‘fit in,'” his attorney wrote.
“He was surrounded by negative influences, including older siblings who were in and out of legal trouble when he was a child. Luther described … memories of walking past a dead body in his neighborhood on the way to school and estimated that he lost over 20 friends to gun violence or prison while growing up.”
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