NORRISTOWN, Penn. – A mild-mannered assailant, already in prison for four bank robberies, was convicted of three more–two of them at local credit unions.
Thirty-five-year-old Jason Rayford, distinctive for his quiet demeanor and polite manner, is already serving time for the 2007 robbery at Com Trust FCU in Upper Merion while armed with a BB gun. He pled guilty this week to the November 2006 armed robbery at Superior CU and a December 2006 hold-up at Sovereign Bank.
Rayford was also convicted of four bank heists that occurred between September 2006 and March 2007.
"One of the similarities of these cases is that he was sort of a gentleman robber. He didn't raise his voice. He tended to be polite," said one of the prosecutors in the case.
Tellers who testified at his trials told jurors that the man who robbed them was polite and courteous when pointing a gun at them and telling them to empty their cash drawers into a plastic bag.
During the hold-ups, Rayford was careful not to touch bank counters with his hands so he wouldn't leave fingerprints and he often wore a hat that covered most of his face from surveillance cameras, according to testimony. Rayford would announce that he had a gun or would lift his shirt to show tellers that he had a gun tucked in the waistband of his pants.
Rayford was convicted in the earlier trials, in part because of testimony by his former girlfriend, who he met on the Internet and convinced to be his getaway car driver. The girlfriend, 35-year-old Carmen Wilkes, is serving 23 months in prison for her role.
A Chester County prosecutor once referred to Rayford and Wilkes as a "modern-day Bonnie and Clyde."
