SC man sentenced to 6 years in prison for Columbia bank ATM robbery

The final South Carolina man convicted in a 2020 armed robbery at a Columbia Bank of America ATM has been sentenced to prison.

Denzel Goodwin, 27, of Columbia, was sentenced to six years and one month in prison for armed bank robbery by U.S. Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. His hearing took place Thursday in federal court in Columbia.

Goodwin was the least culpable of any of the previous defendants because he remained in the car during the robbery at 5110 Fairfield Road, according to prosecutors’ statements in open court.

Some $108,000 was stolen in the robbery, and only $32,000 has been recovered.

The robbery happened on May 31, 2020, when a security guard was servicing a Bank of America drive-thru ATM when two cars with men inside converged on the machine. Some of the men hopped out, made the female guard lie down on the ground at gunpoint and took her pistol.

The guard, who believed she was going to die, suffered from severe post-traumatic stress issues, assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott Daniels said at a 2022 hearing on the case.

Surveillance videos from the ATM and a nearby food store helped authorities quickly identify the suspects and their two cars, a Dodge Charger and a Chevrolet Caprice, according to evidence in the case.

In a motion for a reduced sentence, Goodwin’s court-appointed defense attorney, Renae Alt-Summers, wrote that her client came from a broken family, was living in his mother’s home at the age of 20 when she died and had been homeless before the bank robbery.

Since being arrested, Goodwin has been out of jail on bond, held a steady job and “would never make that fateful decision” to get in trouble again, she wrote. Alt-Summers declined comment Friday.

Three other defendants already sentenced for armed bank robbery are Anthony Hopkins, who received 12 years and eight months; Aquan Hopkins, who received eight years; and Kenneth Boyles, who was sentenced to 11 years and nine months.

The case was investigated by the FBI.