The man found guilty of robbing the Elmwood Bank in April of 2021, among several businesses and individuals during a crime spree around the state, was sentenced this week to 120 months in federal prison.
According to the Department of Justice, 55-year-old John W. Beck of Peoria was also sentenced to 24 more months in prison in relation to an attempted escape from the Livingston County Jail. That sentence is to be served consecutively to the 120 months in prison imposed for the robbery offenses.
At the sentencing hearing, the government presented evidence that Beck admitted to robbing the following businesses and banks: Dollar General in Buffalo, Illinois, on April 8, 2021; Bank of Pontiac, doing business as Odell Bank, in Odell, Illinois, on April 9, 2021; Fast Stop Store in Odell, Illinois, on April 17, 2021; Village Pantry in Paxton, Illinois, on April 18, 2021; and a Subway in Danville, Illinois, on April 19, 2021
During this robbery spree, Beck stole cars from two different individuals, one on April 7, 2021, in Mechanicsburg and another on April 19, 2021, in Paris, Illinois, as well as a car from Green Hyundai in Springfield, Illinois, on April 16, 2021, and one from Central Illinois Motors in Springfield on April 17, 2021. He also stole license plates from two other individuals, which he then used on the stolen cars.
He was arrested in April of 2021, indicted in May, and remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals since then, attempting to escape in September. He pleaded guilty to all charges in January 2022. There was no plea agreement.
At the time of his arrest, Beck was on supervised release for a bank robbery he committed in 2007, for which he was sentenced to the Bureau of Prisons for 151 months. He was also on state parole for an armed robbery conviction in Champaign County, Illinois. He had been released from federal prison in January 2019 and released from the Illinois Department of Corrections sentence in 2020.
Also at the hearing, U.S. District Judge Joe Billy McDade found that, because of previous violent crime convictions, as well as the current bank robbery convictions, Beck was a career offender.
U.S. Attorney Gregory Harris commended the exceptional coordination and cooperation of the law enforcement agencies affected by Beck’s crime spree. “The dedication and cooperation of the law enforcement agencies – including the State’s Attorneys’ Offices for Livingston, Peoria, Edgar, Vermilion, Sangamon, and Ford Counties – led to the arrest of John Beck before he could do any more harm to the people and businesses of central Illinois,” Harris said.
