SALISBURY, Md.- A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to robbing an armored truck in Salisbury.
According to the plea, in January 2018, 49-year-old Orneth South and his co-defendants approached the truck's driver while he was at the State Employees' Credit Union on Mount Hermon Road.
South's co-defendant, Michael Watts, reportedly placed a gun to the driver's head and ordered him out of the truck. That's when South and another co-defendant removed several bags of money from the truck, as well as ATM cassettes filled with cash. Watts then forced the driver into the truck, where he used zip ties to secure his hands, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of Maryland.
In total, $1,324,288 was stolen and dived among the defendants.
In April 2018, South was arrested in Charlotte, N.C., on a warrant issued as a result of the robbery. He agreed to talk to investigators and confessed to the robbery.
At the time of his arrest, South also admitted to his involvement in a separate armored truck robbery in North Carolina in Feb. 2015. In that robbery, he and two accomplices reportedly pointed a semi-automatic handgun at the guard, stole his handgun and $120,694.25 that had just been retrieved from a nearby restaurant, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of Maryland.
As part of the plea agreement, South and his co-defendants must pay restitution in the full amount of the loss. Additionally, if the court accepts his plea agreement, South will be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A U.S. District Court judge has scheduled his sentencing for May 8, 2019 at 3 p.m.
