Wingate sentenced for bank robbery

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

ST. PAUL -- The 19-year old Courtland man who prosecutors say masterminded the Sept. 27, 2002 robbery of a New Ulm bank with the help of five others, was sentenced to prison Monday.

Peter Clayton Wingate had previously entered a guilty plea to armed robbery charges in U.S. District Court.

He and five other New Ulm teenagers were accused of concocting and carrying out the robbery, which occured in the middle of the day at the Valley Bank & Trust branch on South Broadway in New Ulm. Wingate supposedly got away with about $81,000 in cash.

An anonymous tip led the FBI and local police to one of the five teens who were present on the night Wingate told them about his plans. That tip later yielded Wingate's arrest and recovery of most of the stolen money at Wingate's rural Courtland home two days after robbery.

Judge Richard Kyle sentenced Wingate to 78 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release Monday. Kyle also ordered Wingate to repay the $81,000 he took from the bank.

Wingate entered his guilty plea in January. He admitted planning a diversionary car fire on the other side of town in order to draw police away from the robbery. With the help of two others, Wingate went to the bank and threatened a teller with use of the gun. He then fled the bank, hiding both his clothes, the money and a .22-caliber survival rifle in a wooded area across the street from the bank.

Wingate and another friend returned two days later and recovered the money.

Media coordinator Karen Bailey of the U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis declined to comment on the sentencing.

Two other suspects in the robbery have already enter guilty pleas and have received sentences. Another suspect recently won a partial victory in a motion to suppress some of the evidence police collected. Yet another suspect will stand trial as a juvenile. All five suspects were charged in Brown County District Court according to their involvement in the robbery.

Court documents said Wingate and suspect Gary Thomas Dey, 19, of New Ulm, each admitted during interviews with the FBI that they had been planning the robbery over several months during the summer of 2002.

Wingate later told the five about his plans one night at a friend's house. Complaints in Brown County District Court said four of the five people charged agreed to help Wingate in some way but also decided that Wingate would be the only person to actually rob the bank. All five suspects received portions of the stolen money, court documents said.