BALTIMORE, MD — He was in a reentry program after being sentenced to Federal prison for a 2004 bank robbery, now a Baltimore man enters a guilty plea to robbing three more banks, while in that program.
Kevin Maurice Lawson was almost done serving time, which is why he was in a reentry program back in 2022, when he committed more robberies.
He pleaded guilty November 29, 2023.
The armed robberies happened between June 6 and July 18, 2022.
The first armed robbery was June 6, 2022, at a bank in the 100 block of East Baltimore Street.
In the plea, it states Lawson entered the bank wearing a surgical mask and gloves. He walked up to a bank employee, showed his gun in his waistband, and ordered the employee to the teller line. He then held the employee against the teller's glass and demanded money from the other teller, who passed cash to Lawson. He stuffed the money in a brown paper bag and left.
A similar situation played out on June 27, 2022, when he robbed a bank in the 5400 block of Harford Road. This time he ordered an employee to unlock a side door, allowing him to escape onto Hamilton Avenue.
Then on July 18, 2022, Lawson robbed a bank in the 3200 block of West North Avenue, but this time he rushed a security guard, and repeatedly struck her on her head and other parts of her body with his weapon as he ordered bank employees to provide him with cash.
Bank employees gathered cash and got Lawson's attention, so they could give him money and stop the assault. The guard was able to fire a few shots at Lawson, but he got away in a gray Kia. Police chased him and eventually found the vehicle it crashed into the exterior wall of a vacant rowhome.
Police searched the Kia and found clothing and gloves identical to those worn in the bank robberies. They also found documents linked to Lawson including a Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate identification card.
Lawson was arrested on July 22, 2022.
During the investigation it was discovered Lawson robbed the banks on West North Avenue and Harford Road back in 2003.
Lawson faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison for bank robbery.
The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Acting Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock of the FBI, Baltimore Field Office; and Commissioner Richard Worley of the Baltimore Police Department.
