Court upholds sentence for Beavertown bank robbery

PHILADELPHIA - The U. S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a five-year sentence imposed on a Lewistown man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a bank robbery.

Shawn Shimp along with two other individuals previously pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, for their roles in a Nov. 18, 2005, armed bank robbery.

Shimp and Kenneth Harpster entered the Susquehanna Bank and Trust in Beavertown, armed with a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun, and then forced the bank's customers and employees to the ground, court documents indicate.

The men fled the bank with $5,426 and escaped in a truck driven by Shawn Sassaman, according to court documents.

Shimp was initially charged with armed bank robbery, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possession of a sawed-off shotgun and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, court documents indicate.

Shimp entered into a cooperation plea agreement and identified Sassaman and Harpster as his co-conspirators. Shimp also disclosed his involvement in another unsolved attempted robbery that occurred in December 2005 in Blairs Mills, according to court documents.

In addition, Shimp also cooperated with the prosecution in another unrelated robbery case that occurred in Mifflin County. Shimp testified at the trial for David R. Hassinger, held in September 2007, that he and another man melted down a gun Hassinger used during two robberies on May 17, 2006. Hassinger was convicted of robbing the Log Cabin Inn and the Point Store on U.S. 522. He is incarcerated at a state correctional facility, and is serving a 16- to 40-year sentence.

In return for his cooperation by supplying authorities with information regarding the Beavertown bank robbery, certain charges filed against Shimp pertaining to that particular robbery were agreed to be dismissed, documents indicate.

Upon receiving his sentence, Shimp filed an appeal with the U. S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, because he contends the court improperly sentenced him and he should have received a lesser sentence.

According to the Third Circuit Court's ruling, although the district court noted Shimp and Harpster had "engaged in similar conduct and had ... similar criminal record(s)," it also found that Shimp was "the prime mover of the conspiracy." The ruling emphasized that Shimp had organized the bank robbery - a crime that "involved substantial planning and organizing" - and had "obtained the clothing, zip-strips to bind customers and employees of the bank, weapons and the vehicle."

The Third Circuit Court's ruling also states that "the record confirms that Shimp's role as organizer and leader of the conspiracy, as distinguished from the role of Harpster, was the primary basis for the (district) court's consideration for the disparity between Harpster's sentence and Shimp's guidelines range sentence."

During sentencing procedures, the district court noted that Shimp "received the benefit of an extremely favorable plea agreement," without which Shimp would have faced a seven-year mandatory minimum and consecutive sentence for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, court documents indicate.

Pending further court action, Shimp remains in a federal penitentiary serving out the remainder of his sentence.